Cam Neely feels for Bruins fans following a recent skid. Neely himself is right there with B's fans.
The Bruins president did his weekly radio spot on 98.5 The Sports Hub's Felger and Massorotti Show on Wednesday, sounding rather frustrated about his team's play of late.
Neely stressed that the inconsistency of his club continues to be frustrating, and he called for the team to put together better efforts for the full 60 minutes of a game. He pointed to the Bruins' 3-2 win over Washington on Saturday night, a win in which the Bruins had a strong fist period, but struggled to close.
He also stressed that improvement on the power play is paramount if the team wants to find consistency. He also touched on the fact that the team's ultimate commitment to defense may be part of the reason for offensive struggles.
"That goes with the way we play, as a team that is very responsible defensively," he said when asked about the offensive struggles. "When you're that responsible defensively, it's difficult at times to turn it on and say, 'We're going to score a goal.'"
Neely stressed multiple times that the Bruins may need to change their "mindset," and when asked about whether or not head coach Claude Julien's job was safe, this was his response:
"Yeah," he responded while quickly adding, "Everyone's accountable. We're all accountable here. We've got expectations, we all want to meet, from the top on down to the players. … We feel like we have a better club with more skill, but we're ultimately held accountable at the end of the day for how the team performs."
The Hall of Famer also spoke about some reported tiffs between various Bruins players at practice on Tuesday.
"You have to respect each other, you don't have to necessarily like each other," he said. "When things are going bad, you should be a little ornery, antsy and upset. From my perspective, if guys are battling each other in practice and and are upset, it's not necessarily a bad thing."
While Neely seemingly remains somewhat optimistic and confident, he did come back to one thing — consistency.
"I dunno if we're at a crossroads," he said. "We just have to figure out how to play more consistent. I think we're a much better team than we're showing, and we feel we can be more consistent.
