Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien was signed to a contract extension on Friday. He had one year left on his contract and received an extension. The terms/years were not released. That bothers me a little bit. Terms and conditions always get disclosed at some point. I talked to a few other fans and sources and the majority seem to think it is a three year deal. I hope Julien sticks around for a while. There hasn't been a coach in Boston in a while that can get the absolute best from his players on a relatively consistent basis.
With that said, can you remember when Bruins fans hated Julien during the 2004 playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens? Seeing footage of that playoff series and the 2008 playoffs doesn't bother me so much anymore knowing that he's on the right side now.
Moving onto a different tangent now, I went to a couple of informal skates this past week. (Pictures can be found in the gallery.) There are no words to describe what it was like to see familiar faces (Dennis Wideman, Tim Thomas, Shawn Thornton, Milan Lucic) and Providence Bruins (Andrew Bodnarchuk, Brad Marchand, Johnny Boychuk, Zach Hamill) back on the ice. And there are also no words to describe what it was like to see Andrew Ference with hair. (I'm sorry Andrew, but he hardly has any hair during the season.)
September is one of my favorite months and within reason. It doesn't even matter who is on the ice as long as I hear skates cutting into the ice and pucks hitting the boards. No other sound compares.
The rookies are up in Kitchener Ontario now. There are a few other teams holding rookie camps up there. Best of luck to the Bruins' rookies. I think informal skates will continue in Wilmington while the rookies are away. But I can't wait to see everybody at training camp on the 13th. It's crazy to think the regular season starts in less than a month.
