FOXBORO, Mass. — With the amount of focus Dante Scarnecchia puts into the Patriots’ offensive line every season, it’s understandable that he doesn’t describe himself as much of a hockey guy. But the long-time Patriots coach has been enjoying what he’s seen out of the Bruins this postseason.
Scarnecchia had significant praise for Claude Julien, saying that the hockey coach puts out a great team every single season. And Scarnecchia knows a great coach when he sees one. He’s been working next to Bill Belichick for 13 years now and coached alongside Raymond Berry, Ron Meyer, Bill Parcells and Pete Carroll before him.
“I love the coach. I don’t know the guy, but the guy gets out there,” Scarnecchia said. “It’s amazing about Boston hockey fans. They’re really knowledgeable and I think they think they know too much sometimes. I hear them on the radio — I do listen to those talk shows — and it’s, ‘Hey we need to forecheck and we need to backcheck and we need to do…’ And I don’t know what they’re talking about, but it sounds like they know what they’re talking about. And they get on this coach and all he does is go out there and puts out a pretty damn good team every year and they got a pretty damn good team right now.”
Scarnecchia watched all he needed to of last night’s game, and turned it off after Boston had a 4-1 lead.
“I watched them for the first period last night,” he said. “That’s about all I needed to see. I’m really happy for them. Friday night, I just hope they can win the next one. That’s what it’s all about. It makes everybody happy. Makes all you guys happy and us too.”
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