The 2015-16 NHL season hasn't yet gotten underway and somehow, the Boston Bruins already find themselves behind the eight-ball. Offseason changes focused on altering the franchise's personnel approach resulted in several organization-altering moves - the firing of GM Peter Chiarelli, the hiring of GM Don Sweeney, the trades of Milan Lucic and Dougie Hamilton - and some mostly cosmetic roster changes - the additions of Zac Rinaldo and Matt Beleskey and the trade of Reilly Smith and Marc Savard's contract - but thus far the changes in Boston have not touched Claude Julien and the Bruins coaching staff. But despite Julien's safety to this point the veteran coach may have been close to following Chiarelli out the door, according to Frank Seravalli of TSN.
Seravalli, as part of a Monday morning 30 "Bold Predictions" column, suggests that Julien will be the first NHL coach fired this season. While that's less prognostication and more wild guess, it seems Seravalli does have some legitimate reasoning behind this notion.
"New GM Don Sweeney wasn't immediately sold on keeping him anyway, and the Bruins are bound to miss the playoffs for the second straight season. It won't all be on Julien. No coach can survive losing his top three defensemen (Dougie Hamilton, Johnny Boychuk, Zdeno Chara) in one year if Chara misses much time."
Of course, Boychuk's departure came because Sweeney's predecessor Chiarelli knew the Bruins' cap situation was dire and the team would likely have to choose between signing the integral, if aging veteran or the up-and-coming Hamilton. Chiarelli chose Hamilton, the Bruins fell apart without Boychuk's presence in the locker room on the back end in 2014-15 - and reportedly at least partly thanks to Hamilton's personality and poor fit within the Bruins' culture and style of play - and Sweeney ultimately assumed control.
One of Sweeney's first decisions as GM was to flip Hamilton as quickly as possible to the Flames for what, from the outside, certainly seems a mediocre haul.
Now, with the increasingly injury-prone Chara already going down this preseason with an undisclosed injury and potentially set to miss some time, the Boston blueline looks incredibly thin beyond Torey Krug.
There were some rumblings this offseason that Julien could be on the outs in Boston, but a coach who has taken his team to the playoffs seven out of his eight seasons on the job, facing mounting personnel issues, was ultimately given a stay of execution. While some of the Bruins' issues can be placed at Julien's feet, it would seem that Chiarelli and now Sweeney likely carry more of the blame. Still, it's Sweeney's world now, and if he wasn't "sold" on keeping Julien initially, it's hard to envision his mind changing if the Bruins limp out to a slow start this season.
And with Boychuk and Hamilton gone and Chara and Dennis Seidenberg on the shelf, it may only be a matter of time before the losses pile up and Sweeney loses his already-short patience.
