Bruins fire Claude Julien

Real quick thoughts while I sit at home watching the Patriots parade rather than attend it, as being 26 and attending championship parades defies logic more than Tom Brady's accolades as a 39-year-old quarterback....

...Claude had used up his nine lives and then some. I couldn't tell you just how many regular season losses were nearly the end of the line for Julien, but I can surely tell you just how close to the edge he's been living for awhile.

Remember when the Bruins blew a 3-0 lead to the Flyers in 2010? Julien didn't exactly have the resume of Joe Torre, an esteemed member of the blowing a 3-0 lead club, at the time.

Had the Bruins lost to Montreal in the first round the following season, that surely could've been curtains for Claude. The B's came back from a 2-0 series deficit and needed OT in Game 7 to survive and eventually win their only Stanley Cup of this generation.

Claude was safe after the B's lost to the Capitals in Game 7 in the spring of 2012, but had the Bruins not gone all Patriots in the fourth quarter vs. Atlanta vs. Toronto in Game 7 of the 2013 Eastern Conference Quarterfinals, that could have been Claude's last stand.

The Bruins won the President's Trophy in 2014, awarded to the team with the best regular season record. Those Bruins would never be confused with the 16-0 Patriots or 73-9 Warriors falling short, but losing a Game 7 at home to Montreal in the conference semis was inexcusable nonetheless.

Then the B's missed the postseason entirely in 2015. And again in 2016. Despite playing win-and-in games in the finale of each regular season.

How many of those losses or near-losses could be pinned on Claude? It's hard to tangibly define. Tuukka Rask's tummy ache in the finale last season isn't Claude's fault, for example.

Claude is the winningest coach in Bruins history. He has more wins (419) behind the Bruins bench than Art Ross (387) -- the man for whom the NHL's Coach of the Year award is named.

I have almost zero issue with moving on from Claude and seeing if former P-Bruins boss Butch Cassidy can work some magic and see if a team that is teetering on the playoff line can catch lighting in the bottle and just make the freaking postseason.

But as I type this and the Patriots parade is underway, as I consider that another team in this town has run merciless smear campaigns against Terry Francona and Jon Lester, just to name a few, in the not too distant past, it's the Boston Bruins ownership group which continues to shatter the mold of tone-deaf incompetence around here.

Good luck Claude, thank you for 2011. For as much as we could harp on Claude's record in Game 7's (4-5, with all but one of those wins coming in 2011 -- not including the regular season finale losses), it's not his fault this roster is in shambles.

Perhaps Claude will turn up as the first coach of the new Quebec Nordiques after the Carolina Hurricanes are sold. Either that, or he could find work as my father's body double.