Kalman: Not Much More Julien Can Do If 'Light' Bruins Don't Bear Down
BOSTON (CBS) – It's not often Bruins coach Claude Julien insults his own team.
But after the Bruins lost a two-goal lead in the third period and dropped a 5-4 overtime decision to the Philadelphia Flyers on Wednesday at TD Garden, Julien tapped into his dictionary of words that scar hockey teams and players the most.
"Well, I think a lot of it is that we played a light game tonight," Julien said. "A lot lighter than them, and they certainly were better in the battles than we were, and they were certainly better at getting back to a scoring position than we were preventing them from getting there. We had too many guys with light sticks, too many guys playing a light game, and that's not the way we're going to have some success. So it's unacceptable, and what's happened tonight, I think we probably deserved. They were the hungrier team, and we didn't respond well. Too many light guys."
By my measurements "light" is probably one wrung above calling a team soft. And if Julien has to call his team soft anytime soon, we're guaranteed to be in for a long season. Luckily we're only six games into this season, and the Bruins already showed during their 2-0 road trip to Colorado and Arizona that they have the ability to play a harder game when they put their minds to it.
Typically a matchup with the Flyers brings out the physicality in the Bruins. Unfortunately the only sign of toughness they showed was Zac Rinaldo's ill-conceived hit to Flyers forward Sean Couturier's head. The hit landed Couturier and Rinaldo on the sidelines for the rest of the game and gave the Flyers a five-minute power play to start the second period. Somehow the Bruins held the Flyers without a shot and went ahead on a shorthanded goal by Chris Kelly during the major penalty. That should've been the turning point toward two points for Boston.
But instead the Bruins couldn't handle prosperity. They got looser as the game went on. The Flyers scored twice during Boston line changes. The Flyers capitalized on unforgiveable giveaways. In overtime, Ryan Spooner took a lazy penalty that led to Claude Giroux's game-winning goal. Worst of all, the Bruins' lightness is rubbing off on goaltender Tuukka Rask, who let in several softies.
"Yeah, you know I've let in some bad goals," Rask said. "Today maybe I should have one, but you know overall I felt pretty good and a lot of times. I always look at the goals, if I could have done something differently and you know maybe ... 90 percent of the time I maybe wouldn't have. So I wouldn't call it a struggle. But then again you let in five, four goals every game … can't be pretty happy about that."
The Bruins need Rask to find his Vezina-worthy form of a couple years ago. There's only so long he can use the excuse about the young defense. Because as young as the Bruins are, there are plenty of veterans back there as well screwing up. It's going to take time for the team in front of him to get better. Rask has to be the stopper that makes the mistakes of his teammates turn into footnotes rather than goals.
In front of Rask, the Bruins aren't good enough to win a lot of games without sticking to their structure and playing all-out hard for 60 minutes. That doesn't mean crushing people or fighting. It means clearing the front of the net, not getting caught out of position and being alert. These are the things that players are taught in Pee Wee, so it shouldn't matter that some of these guys are new to the NHL or to the Bruins. The Bruins can't treat every goal they score as though it's the last one of the game.
"We obviously have to play with more composure," captain Zdeno Chara said.
Julien usually subscribes to the theory of killing his team with kindness in public during tough times. He opted to insult them as "light" after the loss to the Flyers. There's not much more he can do to get the Bruins rolling if the players don't commit themselves to the winning formula both physically and mentally.
Matt Kalman covers the Bruins for CBSBoston.com and also contributes to NHL.com and several other media outlets. Follow him on Twitter @TheBruinsBlog.
