A coach once told me that when you win, the credit goes to the players, and when you lose, credit is placed squarely on the shoulders of the head coach. This last calendar year for the Boston Bruins does everything to try and prove that wrong.
A year ago Wednesday, the Patriots were celebrating their Super Bowl 51 victory, duckboats rolling down Boylston Street. Just down the road in Allston, the Bruins were in the midst of a press conference revealing that then bench boss Claude Julien had been let go. With a 26-3-6 record so far, Boston’s hockey team was sputtering.