When Claude Julien was called into Lou Lamoriello's office in April 2007 for an early morning meeting between coach and GM, he thought it might have something to do with playoff planning. With the postseason closing in for the New Jersey Devils, he thought perhaps they would hammer out exactly how things would be run for the playoffs.
He certainly didn’t expect to get fired, not with the Devils sitting in first place and the playoffs so close. But he was.
Shocked, disappointed and maybe a little hurt, Julien left that meeting with Lamoriello concerned about his future as a coach. Over the course of about 16 months, he’d been fired twice -- once by Montreal in 2006 and then by New Jersey. In his previous 12 years in the coaching ranks, he had never been fired.
He was worried, really worried. But that stress didn’t last long. He started getting calls from interested teams, and he realized within weeks, he’d still get to pursue his passion.
In telling that story this summer during a chat at the Bruins' practice facility, Julien concluded it this way: “And here I am today, 10 years later, hanging on to my job.”
Hanging on.
It seemed crazy to even phrase it that way, since in those 10 years, Julien established himself as one of the game’s best coaches. But Julien knew -- we all knew -- it wasn’t entirely inaccurate. For as much as Julien won, as much as he climbed the ranks of the best coaches in the game during that time, there was always this belief that it wasn’t ever quite enough to win over everybody in the Bruins' front office, most notably team president Cam Neely.
All Julien did was become the Bruins all-time wins leader, put up a .614 winning percentage and lead the team to the playoffs seven times in nine seasons.
He won a Stanley Cup in 2011, and could have easily won another two years later. He became a trusted assistant for Mike Babcock and Hockey Canada, winning a gold medal in Sochi and helping Canada take home a World Cup title in the fall.
“He makes his team competitive no matter what. He’s a great person, a great teacher of players. He’s a top coach in the NHL, bar none,” Babcock said when we chatted on Tuesday. “He can react on the bench. He can change on the fly. He’s got a great personality for the game, he’s got a good feel for his players. ... For crying out loud, he’s a high-end coach. He’s just that good.”
There should have been no "hanging on" at all for Julien in Boston. He should have had a comfortable spot behind that bench, with the green light to coach as long as he wanted. But that’s not how these things work, and so Tuesday he’s out as Bruins coach in a move that probably prompted a completely opposite reaction to the last time Julien was fired. There was nothing surprising about this. There probably wasn’t even all that much disappointment, not with his name (ridiculously) rumored to be on the chopping block for so long.
Now, it’s probably more like a feeling of relief -- and opportunity.
In the past week, two potential Hall of Fame coaches have lost their jobs. They are two coaches in the top five at what they do in the league, but they’re different. Ken Hitchcock may coach again, but he can pick his spots. At this point in his career, he may prefer to be a short-term solution on the perfect team.
Julien is the best long-term solution available. If Doug Weight isn’t sold on coaching as his career path, the Islanders should call Julien right now. Vegas GM George McPhee should already be dialing him to see if Julien would be interested in helping build the Golden Knights from the ground up.
And coaches for teams where things aren’t going particularly well should probably be a little more nervous today than they were yesterday. If Dallas GM Jim Nill wasn’t planning on bringing Lindy Ruff back next season, perhaps the availability of Julien speeds up the coaching decision process with the Stars. And maybe it speeds up similar processes elsewhere.
“He’s a guy, if you can get him, you get him,” Babcock said. “He changes your franchise overnight.”
But one thing Julien shared this summer about being fired is that his experience on this front has changed his perspective about the whole process. Having gone through it a couple of times early on in his career, he learned to trust that another opportunity will come, and not to rush it.
When other coaches got fired while he was coach of the Bruins, Julien would reach out to them and offer those words of encouragement. He knows the temptation is to sit there and worry, or maybe jump at the first opportunity that arrives.
He’d advise otherwise. He’d tell those coaches between jobs to take advantage of the time. Coaching can be an all-consuming occupation. There’s about a two- or three-week window in the summer where it isn’t the dominant focus on the lives of every coach.
So when news arrives like it did on Tuesday for Julien, or like it did last week for Hitchcock, Julien’s advice has always been to take advantage of it. He’d tell anyone in any job transition the same thing.
“Because you’ll have a job again,” Julien said this summer.
Instead of worrying, he’d tell coaches to do all the things you can’t do when you’re coaching. Go to Germany to see your grandson, as Gerard Gallant did for 10 days immediately after he was fired by Florida. Go fishing. Take that dream trip that the daily grind always prevented.
"You end up worrying about everything," he said. "First thing you know, you have a job, you look back and say, 'I wasted a month, two months or six months of my life worrying about something I shouldn’t have been worrying about. I should have been taking advantage of life.'"
He has earned as much right now. He has earned it as the Bruins' most prolific coach. He has earned it by grinding his way up the ladder of NHL coaches, with a work ethic that came directly from his dad, a roofer.
Julien gets a break from the grind and the hope here is he enjoys it.
“I hope he takes his own advice,” Babcock said. “Get charged up. Get ready for your next run, because your next run is going to be a long one too.”
He deserved better than how it ended in Boston, but there’s no way he gripes about it. That’s not his personality. The bet here is he finds a way to take advantage of the situation, to cash in on his life’s experiences, and then ends up with his pick of NHL jobs when he’s ready for it. There’s no doubt he has earned it.