While criticism swirled about his handling of the team, his system and his decisions, the Bruins coach remained focused on the task at hand. Julien never wavered from the belief in his approach, and his players never wavered in their faith in him.
Now, after leading the Bruins to their first Stanley Cup since 1972 with a 4-0 victory over the Canucks in Game 7 on Wednesday night in Vancouver, Julien could have rubbed his critics' noses in his club's success.
But that's not the type of man Julien is. He remained as gracious in victory as he was while weathering the unwarranted and ill-informed critiques of his coaching abilities all year long.
"It's too bad I'm hearing about all this criticism and I guess it was out there," Julien said on the Rogers Area ice after the win. "But the most important thing is to stay the course. Our players believed in what we're doing, and that's the most important thing. When your players don't believe, then you have an issue. So it didn't really matter what was being said on the outside. Inside that dressing room we knew exactly what we had to do to win. They were very supportive of that, and that's when you can say it worked and we were rewarded for it."
The Bruins — and those fans who so often questioned Julien — were rewarded indeed. And Julien was more than happy to share the victory with those fans regardless of how some of them may have felt about him over the years.
"We love our fans," Julien said. "Our fans have been supporting us a long time. We know it's been since 1972 and they're dying for a hockey championship team, and we're finally able to deliver that for them. We had our bumps along the way, last year and the year before and all that stuff, but maybe had we not gone through that, we might not be the team that we are today because there's a lot of guys that have been here for the last four years and have certainly grown from that."
Julien has now grown in stature, joining an elite fraternity of Boston coaches with championship resumes.
"At least I'm getting in their category, right," Julien said. "And then you see Bill Belichick come in and support us. That was so uplifting for our hockey club. Doc [Rivers] I've seen so often in the hallway. I've had support from all the coaches in the Boston area, and that means a lot to a coach who hadn't won. Those guys are all champions, and I really wanted to join that group. Now I can say I have a championship under my belt."
