Claude Julien safe; Cam Neely in trouble in Boston?

The Boston Bruins have the opportunity to do something very smart or very dumb this week, and it appears they’ve opted for “not dumb.”

Don Sweeney, Bruins general manager, said that Julien will "absolutely" be the coach for Boston next season at a press conference on Thursday.

Jimmy Murphy of Dirty Water Media first reported that Julien will likely be retained by the Bruins, rather than tossed in the trash so two division rivals can set a dumpster-diving land-speed record.

But Murphy also believes that team president Cam Neely is on much less firm footing when it comes to his position with the team.

From Murphy:

The read here though is that won’t be the case this time around. There may be an announcement Thursday that Julien’s staff or some of them have been released but again, this scribe believes that following the Neely and Charlie Jacobs presser on April 20, Julien will still be the Bruins head coach and that Neely quite possibly be designated to a new role away from hockey operations.

If this turns out to be the case, Sweeney — who sources say gets along well with Julien — likely went to bat for the winningest coach in team history and rightfully so. As has been pointed out here before the problems lie within the roster Julien was dealt and as almost the entire NHL community agrees, Julien did one heck of a job getting that roster into playoff contention on the last day of the season. Clearly Sweeney recognizes that and I am told he is already hard at work trying to rectify the roster problems and improve the team’s Achilles Heel, their defense.

It wasn’t offense, that’s for sure. Julien took his marching orders from management, changed the way the Bruins play and got their goals-per-game up to 2.88 from 2.55 last season.

Again, if the Bruins sacked Julien, the probability he emerges with the Ottawa Senators (ready to throw all the money at him) or the Montreal Canadiens (currently backing Michel Therrien, potentially because there’s no better option) is quite high. Perhaps Don Sweeney sensed this as well, and is willing to give it another shot with one of the best coaches in the NHL who missed the playoffs the last two seasons by a combined grand total of five points.

As for Neely, he’s been team president since 2010. There have been some good times. There have been some not-as-good times.

But what he’s presiding over now is, as Stanley Cup of Chowder notes, a team that can’t seem to settle on a single direction for the franchise:

This "soft rebuild" that they claim to be doing is pretty much a garbage fire. It’s a plan that seems hell-bent on maintaining mediocrity, being just good enough to still fill the Garden on a nightly basis and sneak in a playoff round or two, but nothing with any real end goal.

The Bruins have been like the Jekyll and Hyde of hockey operations: trade Milan Lucic (move for the future). Extend Adam McQuaid (move for now). Trade Dougie Hamilton for just draft picks (move for the future). Keep Loui Eriksson without an extension (move for now).

The organization is stuck on some sort of planning roller coaster, riding "going for it" and "let’s build for the future" peaks and valleys until all of the fans just want to get off the ride. This has been going on since 2013, and the common thread is Neely.

Perhaps the organization has faith in Sweeney, who has faith in Julien, and Neely’s lost that faith?

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Greg Wyshynski is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter. His book, TAKE YOUR EYE OFF THE PUCK, is available on Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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