Bruins extend their head coach Claude Julien

The Boston Bruins have signed their head coach to a new contract. Julien lead the Boston Bruins to the Stanley Cup championship during the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs. There is a news conference scheduled for today at 12:00 noon eastern time.

BOSTON, MA – Boston Bruins General Manager Peter Chiarelli announced today, July 23, that the club has signed Head Coach Claude Julien to a multi-year contract extension. Chiarelli and Julien will speak to media about the extension on Tuesday, July 24.M

Julien, named the 28th head coach in Bruins history on June 21, 2007, led Boston to the club’s first Stanley Cup Championship in 39 years in 2011, following a 4-0 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in Game 7. In five seasons behind the B’s bench, Julien has led the club to an overall record of 228-132-50 (.617 win percentage). His 410 Bruins games coached rank third all-time in club history and he is fourth all-time in Boston wins, trailing only Art Ross (361), Milt Schmidt (245) and Don Cherry (231). During his tenure, Julien’s squads have never missed the postseason, registering a career playoff record of 36-27 (.571 win percentage) to rank first all-time among B’s bench bosses in post-season victories.

In January, Julien was named head coach for Zdeno Chara’s team at the 2012 NHL All-Star Game, making his second appearance, having served as head coach at the 2009 NHL All-Star Game in Montreal.

In 2011-12, Julien led the Black & Gold to its fifth consecutive season recording 91 or more points with 102, and the second straight season above 100, after reaching 103 points in 2010-11. Under Julien, the B’s did not suffer a regulation loss in the month of November with a 12-0-1 record and recorded the most points (25) in a single month since a 25-point March in 1978. It also marked the first full calendar month without a regulation loss since finishing January, 1969 with a 10-0-4 mark. Boston’s 10-game win streak from November 1-23 tied for the fourth-longest streak in team history and was their longest win streak since a 10-game stretch from December 12, 2008-January 1, 2009. Within that same span, Julien led the Bruins to a 15-game point streak (14-0-1) from November 1-December 5, the club’s longest such streak since 1983.

The 2011-12 season for Julien also marked the first time his Bruins swept Toronto since the Maple Leafs joined the Eastern Conference in 1998-99, in addition to registering the best single-season shootout record (9-3) recorded in team history. The ability to keep his bench composed late in games led the Black & Gold to record a +42 third-period goal differential this season, which was higher than the overall differential of all but four NHL clubs. Julien’s B’s also posted a league-best overall goal differential of +67.

Rich Peverley checks Kevin Bieksa's cup

I have seen today where some suggested that Boston Bruins forward Rich Peverley should be suspended for this little love tap on Vancouver Canucks defenseman fraud Kevin Bieksa. As you probably know, if you read this blog, I am on the record as not being a big fan of Canucks defenseman Kevin Bieksa and his on ice antics, I could also care less if he played his hockey at Bowling Green State University, so one might say that Karma has finally caught up with Mr. Bieksa, couldn't have happened to a nicer more deserving person.

Since Richard Peverley is a semi skilled hockey player that doesn't fight very often he will have to be on the look out for Kevin Bieksa because he is known for going after skilled players that don't like to fight and has fought with the following heavy weights during the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs (Viktor Stalberg, Troy Brouwer, Patrick Marleau).

Ottawa Sun --- “I’m sure everybody knows what happened and they’ll keep a better eye on him next time,” said Bieksa of Peverley, whose slash went undetected by referees Kelly Sutherland and Dan O’Halloran.

 “There’s such a thing as karma. Whether it’s next year or the year after, he’ll get something from somebody else. He got me on the back of the knee. Luckily, it’s okay.”

Now before someone says that I think that Kevin Bieksa deserved to be stuck in the groin with a stick, I didn’t say that  he deserved it, however, Bieksa brought that reaction on himself by the type of game that he plays on the ice. I do believe in Karma like I mentioned earlier. I also want to be clear I am not a fan of using your stick to settle differences on the ice and Peverley  deserved a penalty for his cup check, but this stick fowl nowhere comes close to a suspendable offense.

Edit: Here is what the Vancouver Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault had to say about the Peverley love tap on Kevin Bieksa. You can judge for yourself, but it looks like the war of words is heating up in this series.

 Joe Sullivan, Globe Sports Editor ---- Vigneault also talked about the physical nature of his team and the series plus a reference to what he called a cheap shot by Rich Peverley of the Bruins.

"I think if you look at the stat sheet at the end of the day, we're hitting as hard as they are. If you look at the stat sheets throughout the playoffs, we're the team that's got the most hits. That's part of our game. Kevin (Bieksa) didn't get hit, he got a cheap shot in the back of the knee (by Peverley), so that's totally different. He went down because of something that obviously you don't want to see in the game. But at the end of the day, we know that they're a big, physical team. We can play a speed game, but we can also play a physical-type game, which I think we've shown throughout the playoffs."

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• Rich Peverley Slashes Kevin Bieksa In Leg, Runs Away (sbnation.com)