“One thing we had to do was to redeem ourselves from last night,” Julien said. “I knew that this team that we were playing tonight was going to be ready to play. They were here, they practiced, were well rested and were coming here to make a point. It was important for us to be ready to play our game. If you want to call it embarrassed, for us to lose 5-1, it was embarrassment to us.”
The speech apparently worked as the Bruins unloaded their frustrations from Montreal and embarrassed the Leafs in a 7-2 blowout.
“I think the importance for us was to come out and bounce back, and have the type of game that we should have had last night,” Julien said. “We did that. It was important to show our character and determination, bouncing back from that bad outing.”
So what did he tell his players? Was it a Herbs Brooks type speech or was it Knute Rockne? No one was really letting on after the game but the players all seem to agree Julien got through to them.
“I can’t really pinpoint some of it, it was just a really inspirational one there and I don’t know whose book it was out of but it was pretty good,” said center Marc Savard who had a hat trick. “So you will have to ask him for the quotes, I can’t pick up any because there were so many.”
Steve Begin wasn’t letting any highlights out either.
“I’m not going to tell you guys, you know that,” Begin said with a smile. “But yeah, he’s good at those. You know he gives us talks all the time but this was a little different and we did a good job responding.”
Julien was asked if he would use such speeches more often to prevent flat performances like the one in Montreal but as he pointed out, the key is to pick your spots.
“Well you can’t wear them out right,” he said. “So you have to save them for the right moments. That’s a coach’s job. If you do that every night it is going to go in one ear and out the other.”
