In Claude we trust

BOSTON — We figured it couldn't get any better than this: Bill Belichick, the genius; Terry Francona, the manager of egos; and Doc Rivers, the former star player who tells everyone, including the media, exactly like it is.

Together, the Boston coaching trio have combined to guide your New England Patriots, Boston Red Sox and Boston Celtics, respectively, to six championships since the turn of the century, with more probably on the horizon.

Those high-profile coaches have put their own, distinctive touch on their titles. And barring an unforeseen, colossal collapse, each will probably be around here awhile.

As good as they are, however, there is another coach guiding New England's top professional hockey club who is worthy of their company. In fact, it could be argued, the new guy in town, Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien — the guy not even on the coaching Big Three radar — might be doing the best job of them all right now.

The fact that the Bruins lead the National Hockey League in points is one thing. The fact that they have done it so quickly after being left for dead shortly after the NHL lockout four years ago is another.

"You never give one person all of the credit," said Bruins defenseman and captain Zdeno Chara. "There is ownership. There is the general manager. There are other coaches. It isn't one player, it's a lot of players. But I have to say Claude deserves a lot of credit for us. He is our leader."

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When Julien was hired in June 2007, it drew few headlines and was met with the usual apathy that surrounded the club.

While Julien emulated the Bruins spirit — he grew up in the small logging town of Blind River, Ontario, and spent 12 years in the minors, playing in only 14 games in NHL — he wasn't the injection of life, a la Don Cherry, Bruins fans thought this franchise needed.

Julien's NHL and minor league coaching resume, while littered with successes (265 wins, 172 losses, 78 ties), had two black marks. He was fired by the Montreal Canadiens after less than two full seasons. And, even more peculiar, he was fired by the New Jersey Devils with three games to go in the 2006-07 regular season and his team leading the conference standings.

But, in retrospect, both firings probably deserve an asterisk.

The Canadiens firing was understandable. After getting off to a quick start, they won only seven of 25, which is heresy in the province of Quebec.

As for what happened with the Devils, only team President/Dictator Lou Lamoriello knows. Lamoriello had pulled the same stunt the season before when he fired Robbie Ftorek with the Devils in first place with eight games to go, saying "I didn't like the direction of the team."

Lamoriello's Devils won the Stanley Cup the year Ftorek was fired, so he was probably rolling the dice again. But the Devils were eliminated in their second playoff series after Julien's ouster.

"It's over, why talk about it?" said Julien, who refuses to elaborate on the Devils experience. "I have great respect for Lou. I always will. He made a decision he thought was right for the organization. That's his job. It doesn't mean I agreed with it, but ..."

The pressure was on Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli to hire the right guy. Including the lockout season (2004-05), Bruins fans had gone three straight years without seeing a playoff game.

Having no qualms about the past terminations, almost immediately after the season 2006-07 season, Chiarelli fired Dave Lewis and contacted the jilted Julien.

"I've known Claude for a while. We're both from Ottawa. I was agent when he was a coach (in the minors)," said Chiarelli. "I followed his teams closely. His teams consistently show me something I liked, especially how they worked. He had guys that played beyond the performance people expected. And, of course, his bread and butter is defensive zone coverage. I'm a big believer in that, too."

As an assistant GM with the Ottawa Senators, Chiarelli said he couldn't help but appreciate one particular trait that he wanted for his next coach in Boston.

"In Montreal, one thing I noticed was the development of younger players," said Chiarelli. "There were three or four younger players that improved under him. He is not unwilling to put these guys in the lineup and develop in a system. The bottom line is the way he coached was compatible with what we were trying to do."

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The Bruins had shown marked improvement in Julien's first season (2007-08). They had only one losing month (December, 6-8-2) and some of the young talent Chiarelli was hoping to develop — Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic, David Krejci, Mark Stuart and Chuck Kobasew — did just that.

Better yet, the Bruins were flirting with earning a playoff spot for much of the last half of the season, the same time they were playing their best hockey, too.

"People look at this year, but this all started last year," said Bruins elder statesman, P.J. Axelsson. "We started to get consistent last year. That's something Claude talked about a lot from the first day he got here."

That wasn't all. As Chiarelli noted, defense was also a focal point.

"If you don't take care of your defensive end, you hear about it from Claude," said Marc Savard, the Bruins' All-Star leading scorer. "I know every coach talks about it. But you hear about it every day here. He never relents. I honestly believe it helps, I know it helped me. Everything we do starts with defense."

Stressing defense is at the core of Julien's most controversial moments as Bruins coach. It came last spring during their opening series against the Canadiens, the top seed in the Eastern Conference, when Julien decided to bench Kessel, probably the Bruins most skilled player behind Savard, for three games.

Julien questioned Kessel's "grit."

The Bruins were down in the series 1-0 at the time and goal-starved (they lost a lackluster opener, 4-1). For a team that hadn't won a playoff series in over a decade, sitting the young sniper appeared to be a risky move.

However, it sent a message that these new Bruins would not waiver from their system for anybody, even a future star like Kessel. That resonated well with the GM.

"People don't see everything," said Chiarelli, referring to the fans' negative reaction to the Kessel benching by Julien. "People see Phil being benched, but there are a lot of other things that led up to that, previous games."

Upon his return to the lineup, Kessel scored three goals in the next two games against Montreal, including a pair in a 5-4 Game 6 victory, the most exciting Bruins win since Ray Bourque and Cam Neely were teammates.

While the Bruins lost Game 7 in Montreal, 5-0, the seed had been planted. Boston sports fans were talking about hockey.

"I think we took away some positives, sure," said Julien, a few days after the ouster. "It was nice to see the excitement following the team .... But we didn't win the series. We have to take that next step."

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Chiarelli and other members of the Bruins hockey operations team, including Vice President Neely, were in agreement about the 2008-09 season. They thought the Bruins offense needed a little pick-me-up.

"We were looking for the offense to be a little more open, but we didn't want to lose our defensive approach," said Chiarelli. So the GM and Neely set up a meeting with Julien over the summer to discuss their thoughts.

"A lot of coaches are stubborn. Claude is stubborn," said Chiarelli. "He was open to what we were saying, and that showed me a lot. He's willing to change a little bit. That day really told me a lot about him."

Chiarelli continued to make a few changes — Glenn Murray's contract was bought out and Blake Wheeler signed as a rookie free agent — and Julien made his offensive tweaks.

After starting slow out of the gate (2-2-3 through seven games), everything clicked. The Bruins lost only one game in November and equaled that pace in December, which included a 10-game winning streak and 15 wins in 16 games. Heading into this weekend, they were second in the NHL in goals (3.7 per game) and second in goals allowed (2.3).

The Bruins will be sending three players to the NHL All-Star game (Chara, Savard and Tim Thomas). The top three plus-minus players in the NHL are all Bruins. And if you look at the roster, there are a number of young players, particularly Kessel, who are playing roles Chiarelli dreamed about.

But for those in the know, all the midseason accolades start and end with the coach, who was named yesterday coach of the Eastern Conference for the All-Star game.

"If you see our practices, you'll see that Claude has these guys playing very hard every day," said Chiarelli. "He keeps it interesting. He changes the drills from time to time. I couldn't be happier. I really couldn't."

As for the team, it has taken on the personality of its coach. The players are positive, yet they are not gloating or making predictions.

"The guy is honest and fair," said Bruins tough guy Shawn Thornton. "It's really black and white. You play hard and you'll be rewarded. If he doesn't like something, he will fix it."

Yes he will.

E-mail Bill Burt at bburt@eagletribune.com.

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Coach Julien has quietly elevated the Bruins to the top alongside the Patriots, Red Sox and Celtics

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