The last time the NHL visited Prague, neither coach from the teams involved made it through that season, as Tampa Bay's Barry Melrose and the New York Rangers' Tom Renney each got the axe before the end of the 2008-09 season.
History shouldn't repeat this weekend as the last two winners of the Jack Adams Award as the league's top coach will be on hand for the NHL's return to the Czech Republic, with 2010 winner Dave Tippett in charge of Phoenix and 2009 recipient Claude Julien behind the Boston bench.
Still, a rocky regular season that included a 10-game losing streak in January and February and a 10-game winless stretch at home that carried into March, followed by a historic playoff collapse in the spring could have put Julien in the crosshairs this season.
Instead, Julien goes into the season with the full backing of his boss, as Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli lauded his coach extensively before departing for Europe.
"Part of what makes Claude a good coach is that his structure, his ideas," said Chiarelli. "Once they're in place, he goes through every single detail with his staff and the players, and they know full well what they have to do in every area of the ice."
Julien, who has posted a 133-78-35 record in the regular season and a 17-14 mark in the playoffs in three seasons with the Bruins, came to Boston with a reputation as a defensive-oriented coach. And with the Bruins finishing with the best goals-against average in the league in 2008-09 and the second-best mark last year, he's certainly delivered on that front. But Chiarelli has been particularly impressed with Julien's ability to adapt his system and approach over the course of his first three seasons in Boston.
"What he's shown me over the last couple of years is his ability to talk about new ideas, his ability to see the game changing, talk to us about the game changing, seeing how our team evolves and him changing," said Chiarelli. "It's little things, maybe not noticeable to the outside, but things that he changes that are important for a long coaching career. And I believe that he has the ability to be here much longer than even another two or three years because he has shown that he can adapt."
Julien is already poised to become the first Boston coach to last four seasons behind the Bruins bench since Gerry Cheevers made it to his fifth year before getting the axe in 1985. Since then, Pat Burns has come the closest, but was fired just eight games into his fourth season in 2000.
In the decade since Burns was jettisoned, the Bruins went through five more coaches before hiring Julien in 2007. He led the Bruins to their first playoff berth in three seasons in 2007-08, then to the top seed in the East and their first playoff series win in a decade in 2008-09 en route to winning the Jack Adams.
Last year witnessed some serious stumbles in the regular season and the epic collapse against the Flyers, but Chiarelli is confident in the adjustments Julien has made to set the Bruins up for more sustained success — and a longer playoff run — this year.
"This year we've tweaked a few things on the ice, but it's off the ice too," said Chiarelli, who signed Julien to a multi-year extension last summer. "For example, last year he changed a few things. He changed his approach around the trade deadline and I know it helped. We ask the players to do that, I'm asked to do it, and Claude does it. It's something that's an asset that Claude has that will contribute to his sticking around."
