“We tried to help him out,’’ Julien said. “At one point, you feel a little resistance and stubbornness. So then you take the next step. In other words, it was, ‘If you don’t want to be playing our way, understanding that we’re trying to make you a better player, then you’ll be watching.’ Sometimes it takes a guy just one game to understand that. Some players learn pretty quickly. He did.’’
So when the 2007-08 season opener rolled around, Wideman was watching from the press box of American Airlines Center in Dallas as the Bruins played the Stars.
The healthy scratch is just one tool that Julien, who coaches his third Black-and-Gold season opener tonight, has wielded since his arrival in Boston. Julien is a hard-driving, no-nonsense coach who emphasizes his on-ice practice points with a string of curses, but then eases off by pulling players aside for one-on-one chats. He’ll bust his players during practice but is generous in giving them Sundays off or excusing them from morning skates.
It’s black. And white. But never gray.
“Probably the most important hire a manager has to make,’’ general manager Peter Chiarelli said of identifying and landing the right man to stand behind the bench.
Seemingly all is well in Boston, where the Bruins are hoping to build on a dynamo of a 2008-09 regular season. The front office, benefiting from some of the wise decisions made by the previous regime (drafting David Krejci and Milan Lucic, locking up Tim Thomas), has hit on a string of positive personnel decisions. Thomas, the reigning Vezina Trophy winner, is back between the pipes tonight. Zdeno Chara, last year’s Norris Trophy winner, will patrol the blue line, with Derek Morris, signed to a one-year, $3.3 million contract, as his mobile right-hand man.
But the team’s most important assets are Julien and his staff, who are expected, once again, to squeeze the best out of the players in uniform.
