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(Editor's note: The ninth in our end-of-season report card series on the 2011-2012 Bruins.)

In the final installment of our 2011-12 Bruins report cards we give our marks for Bruins head coach Claude Julien and general manager Peter Chiarelli. Together, this tandem has helped lead the Bruins to five consecutive playoff appearances and the organization's first Stanley Cup in 39 seasons in 2011. This was bound to be a trying season for both as expectations were high coming off last season’s title. While the Bruins had their peaks and valleys, they were still able to win the Northeast and finish as the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. But the Bruins’ failure to advance past the first round and to make the necessary adjustments prior to and during the playoffs prevented Julien and Chiarelli from earning top grades like last season.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Bruins coach Claude Julien did not appreciate Capitals coach Dale Hunter's contention that the Bruins are headhunters.

Julien called Hunter's comments "ridiculous" and "ludicrous."

On Tuesday, Hunter said the Bruins were targeting the head of Nicklas Backstrom, who missed 40 games this season due to a concussion.

"There's no reaction, really," Julien said. "That doesn't make sense. We don't. I don't know any coach that would tell his team to go after somebody's head. That speaks for itself and that's all I'm going to say about that."

But Julien continued.

"It's ludicrous. It's ridiculous. There's always going to be emotions in games and there are things that are happening. There were three cross checks and they penalized one and suspended one, but we're not whining about the referees and what's going on here. We need to win a game and we need to win a series. That's where our focus is on and that's where it should be."

Backstrom was suspended for one game and will miss Game 4 of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the Bruins on Thursday night at Verizon Center. After Boston's 4-3 win in Game 3, Backstrom cross-checked the Bruins' Rich Peverley in the face.

"We're definitely going to miss him," Hunter said. "We don't think he should be suspended.

"It's disappointing. He's suspended and it's in the history books and we have to concentrate on [Game 4]."

After the Capitals held practice Wednesday morning, Hunter said the Bruins are not only playing between the whistles.

"They were after the whistle and before the puck was dropped. They were doing stuff off the draw, like [Milan] Lucic going after Nicky's head," Hunter said. "We've got to play through it and let the refs do their job. We just have to play."

Julien believes his team is doing exactly that.

"The one thing you have to do is play between whistles," Julien said. "There are scrums that happen after whistles and you've got to be disciplined enough not to put your team short-handed. We're just one of many series that have all the same things happening. This is not unique. This is playoff hockey."

When it comes to concussions, the Bruins have recently dealt with their fair share of head injuries. Currently, forward Nathan Horton will not play again this season after suffering a concussion on Jan. 22. Marc Savard's career is likely over because of numerous concussions, and Patrice Bergeron nearly had his career ended in 2007.

"It's the first I'm hearing of it," Bergeron said of Hunter's comments. "We're just playing playoff hockey. We're not worrying about who's out there. I certainly would be the last guy to do something like that, having been through it. I don't really worry about that, to be honest, we just need to go out there and play our game."

Bergeron does not believe players head-hunt in the NHL.

"No. Obviously, games are played hard, especially at this time of the year," he said. "I hope not."

After the Bruins held practice at Capitals Iceplex Wednesday afternoon, Julien spoke at length about concussions, and mentioned a tweet by Octagon hockey agent Allan Walsh, who wrote: "This has spiraled from out of control to total chaos. Do we really need a player to die on the ice for this insanity to stop?"

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BOSTON -- The first two games of the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series between the Bruins and Capitals has been a lot more physical than many expected. That has been the key to the Capitals being able to bring the series back to Washington tied at two games a piece after a 2-1 double overtime win in Boston on Saturday afternoon.

But are the Capitals crossing a line and getting away with some dirty plays? In Game 1, David Krejci needed stitches above his lip for what he said was an uncalled crosscheck.

On Saturday, after watching Washington's Alexander Ovechkin hit defenseman Dennis Seidenberg high in a first-period scrum and not get sent to the penalty box, Bruins coach Claude Julien voiced some frustration with the referees and said he hopes the league steps in.

“This is the second crosscheck in two games,” Julien pointed out. “Krejci got cut below the nose by the crosscheck in Game 1, and now that one, and there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it except that there’s no call on it. Whether they missed it or not, it could be. Then the league has a second opportunity to review it, and you’ve got to let them do their jobs.

"But those hits to me are extremely dangerous things that we keep talking about wanting out of the game, and I’ve seen suspensions from that before. We’ll the let the league take care of it, and we’ll focus on what we have to do to win next game.”

Seidenberg seemed fine after the game and did not share his coach's outrage. As far as he’s concerned, it’s playoff hockey and there will be more of that to come as this series moves to Washington for Games 3 and 4.

“Stuff like that happens so it’s for the refs to call and I don’t really care,” Seidenberg said. “It’s a tight game and I think worse things have to happen for them to call it.”

Seidenberg has been doing a good job of frustrating Ovechkin, who got his first point of the playoffs by assisting on Troy Brouwer’s second-period goal, but credited Ovechkin for playing hard.

“It’s just about us shutting him down and playing him tight and not giving him any opportunities,” Seidenberg said. “He was on his game today. He skated hard and we did our best to try and stop him."

WILMINGTON, Mass. -- Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien has no plans this postseason to place his players in semi-seclusion.

As the Bruins prepare to face the Washington Capitals in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal series, Julien was asked whether he was planning another team outing, similar to what the Bruins did last season when they faced the Montreal Canadiens in the first round.

After the Bruins hosted Games 1 and 2 in Boston last April, the next two games were played at Bell Centre in Montreal. Because of scheduling issues, there were two days off in between Games 3 and 4, so Julien decided it would be best to get his players out of Montreal and set up camp in Lake Placid, N.Y., for a couple of days.

The visit to the Adirondack Mountains proved crucial for a few reasons: It allowed the Bruins, who were trailing 2-1 in the series, to focus on the task at hand. It also served as a team-bonding trip and helped the Bruins win that series, and ultimately the Stanley Cup with wins over the Flyers, Lightning and Canucks.

This postseason’s road schedule in the first round is similar. After Games 1 and 2 in Boston on Thursday and Saturday, Games 3 and 4 will be Monday and Thursday at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C.

Julien has no plans to ask President Obama for the keys to Camp David.

“When it came to that with the rivalry of Montreal and Boston, it was best for us in those two days to find the place that we can have our guys relax,” Julien said after Tuesday’s practice. “Montreal is such a big hockey city that’s basically the main sport they live and die with, so for us it was important [to practice elsewhere].

“That was a great occasion because Lake Placid was close enough for us to get there so you don’t always have to, in my mind, you don’t always have to repeat the same things. I’m not a believer of let’s do the same thing as last year because this year's a different year.

"I’ve said that before, it’s a different team, it’s not the same players. We’ve got some of the same players, but it’s not the same players. I don’t think duplicating what happened last year is going to make us a better team or give us a better chance at winning. We've just got to live in the moment here and then recreate it in our own way.”

BOSTON -- Even before scoring the tying goal with 1:07 left in regulation in the Bruins' shootout win over the Predators on Saturday, Milan Lucic was playing his trademark physical, tenacious, hard-skating game from the opening shift. That set the tone in a game that followed the team's worst defeat of the season, a 6-0 loss at Buffalo last Wednesday.

The Bruins hope Saturday's win will snap them out of a 1-3-0 funk they've been in since the All-Star break and their mediocre 9-7-1 play since New Year's Eve. They'll get a true test on Tuesday when the conference-leading New York Rangers come to TD Garden.

Bruins coach Claude Julien knows having Lucic at his physical best will be a big help.

“You see how [Lucic] was forechecking on that, and he just went through everybody and banged that puck in,” Julien said of Lucic's goal against Nashville. “It was a big goal and that’s his game. When he forechecks and he becomes a physical player he puts [defensemen] on their heels and they look over their shoulder all the time. That’s when he’s at his best -- not just that part of it -- but driving to the net.

"When he does that, he’s successful at scoring goals and helping us out. That’s why he’s more or less a 30-goal scorer and could be even more. So that’s his game and he was definitely determined to help us out that game. The reason we won is because he gave us that chance.”

Lucic's teammates fed off his tempo, playing one of their most complete games since the last time they faced the Rangers, a 3-2 overtime loss on Jan. 21. Lucic used his 6-foot-4, 220-pound frame to dictate the play, sending the Nashville defenders back on their heels. When his teammates see him doing that, they’re inspired and follow suit.

“He’s a big part of our team and he’s a big force on the ice,” Marchand said. “He’s a big body, he’s got a lot of skill and it’s very hard to take the puck off him when he’s playing his game. We feed a lot of emotion and energy from him when he’s playing that way and we need him to play that way if we’re going to win.”

Lucic knows that as well.

“We talked about it as a team before that game that we wanted to push the pace more,” Lucic said. “That was for myself a key. No matter what line I am playing with or whom I’m playing with, if we’re playing with speed, making quick strong plays, then good things will happen and we’ll create chances. It wasn’t just me -- we had a good first shift -- because [Patrice Bergeron's] line went out and took over and so on. It created momentum and I think that good first shift we had set the tone for everyone out there.”

Lucic knows he needs to bring that style on a more consistent basis to help himself and his team.

“It was one of those days where it just happens,” said Lucic, who reached the 20-goal mark for the second straight season. “I just felt lighter. A lot of those things we talked about and stressed in the practices the two days before we did and I was doing. If I move my feet, everything else takes care of itself. I don’t think I ever had seven shots on net in a game before, so if I move my feet, good things happen and that’s a part of my game that I have to remember to focus on and stay consistent with.”

Lucic also realizes his play is that much more important with linemate Nathan Horton out for the forseeable future.

“It definitely helps when I’m playing with him, I won’t lie,” Lucic said of Horton. “He does play a similar style and it just makes it easier on [David Krejci] and me. But I need to play that physical style no matter who I am playing with because that’s my style and I feed off playing that way. We miss him though, that’s for sure.”

Lucic acknowledged that his game thrives off emotion, and some games -- such as the loss in Buffalo -- that emotion can work against him.

“We were playing with an edge, but it was an edge that didn’t really help us," Lucic said. "And I need to try to not let that happen because I am an emotional guy and I let it show, but I need to channel it better as do all of us. You can see the difference between the two. We still had that edge against Nashville, but it was a different edge and we used it to our advantage. We worked it to a positive. We weren’t letting guys get under our skin, we just did what we needed to do and worried about our game.”

WILMINGTON, Mass. -- With his team on a two-game losing streak and in need of a scoring spark against the Washington Capitals on Sunday, Bruins head coach Claude Julien decided to switch up his lines, moving center David Krejci down to play between Jordan Caron and Benoit Pouliot and Chris Kelly up to play between Rich Peverley and Milan Lucic. The move worked as the Bruins, with just one goal in their previous two games, lit the lamp four times in a 4-1 win.

When the Bruins returned to the ice for practice Tuesday, the questions regarding the lineup move by Julien weren’t just about the spark he was searching for but also whether he was sending a message to Krejci, who has been very streaky this season.

“I don’t think there’s really any message other than we expect our players to come out and be the best they can every night,” Julien said. “That’s something that I think they owe it to the organization especially based on their contracts. That’s what we expect from them no matter where they are. The message should be the same whether he plays with certain players, his normal linemates or other players.”

Krejci was asked the same question and said he would just continue to work hard.

“I don’t really want to comment on it. I’m a professional,” the Czech center said. “I’m going to go out there every day and compete my hardest. That’s all I can control.”

Krejci who had an NHL best eleven-game point streak in January and then had points in four of the five games heading into the all star break admitted his play has tailed off a bit since returning from the break and promised to improve.

“I felt really good about my game going into the All-Star break. We had a couple bad games after the All-Star Game,” said Krejci, who now has 39 points in 48 games. “It happens. Just have to get back to where I was before the All-Star Game. I’ve done it many times before. I’m not worried about how I’m going to do it again. I have to look at it positively, go out there every day in practice and games and do my best.”

Julien didn’t seem to concerned about his usual top center either and credited him for helping his new linemates in the win at Washington.

“I thought he responded well and when you look at his stats after the game, and the line with Caron and Pouliot and how they created, they weren’t even getting shots so they were good and I didn’t mind them at all,” Julien said. “They did the job and I thought David was good himself. It’s just about getting everybody going again and sometimes those changes are not bad things.”

Wilmington, Mass. -- The Bruins held practice at Ristuccia Arena on Tuesday morning before jetting off to Buffalo for a Northeast Division tilt with the Sabres on Wednesday. While Buffalo is just 13th in the East and the Bruins are 2-0 against them this season, the B’s realize they can’t take their division rivals lightly.

“The one thing that we’re well aware of is that we haven’t fared well against teams that are out of the playoffs right now,” Julien pointed out. “We have to be a little bit better and our goal right now is to carry last game (a win in Washington) into this game here. I really felt like we had control most of the game and we did the things that we normally do when we’re successful. So we need to bring that to Buffalo and repeat it. I think that’s what our main focus is on and the challenge is playing better against those teams. Just because they’re there right now, doesn’t make them a bad team, it makes them a hungry team. So we are certainly aware of that and our focus is about our team more than it is other teams at this stage.”

Zdeno Chara was absent from practice Tuesday, but Julien calmed any fears following the skate, telling the media the captain was given a day off after a hectic week last week following the All Star weekend in Ottawa.

The forward lines once again looked the same as they did when the Bruins 4-1 win at Washington concluded on Sunday with David Krejci centering Benoit Pouliot and Jordan Caron instead of being in his normal slot next to Milan Lucic and Nathan Horton (or whoever is playing in place of Horton, who is out with a concussion.

Lucic was playing with Rich Peverley, who was again in Horton’s slot and Chris Kelly in Krejci’s place at center.

Speaking of Horton, Julien had no updates to give after practice, and wasn’t too happy he was asked to give one.

“Guys, I’m done talking about it,” a seemingly frustrated Julien said. “You know I look at every team who has guys with concussions and it would be nice if you guys would give him a chance and let him go through his things. I can’t give you an update every day because it could be long, it could be short. When you see him on the ice with us, it’s going to be a real good sign so we’ll leave it at that. I don’t have the answer so I’m not going to give you the answer when we don’t know what concussions are all about. There’s forward steps and there’s backward steps and I just can’t come out here every day because it doesn’t make sense.”

Here’s what the forward lines and defensive pairings looked like Tuesday:

Brad Marchand-Patrice Bergeron-Tyler Seguin
Milan Lucic-Chris Kelly-Rich Peverley
Benoit Pouliot-David Krejci-Jordan Caron
Daniel Paille-Gregory Campbell-Shawn Thornton

Johnny Boychuk-Steven Kampfer
Dennis Seidenberg-Joe Corvo
Andrew Ference-Adam McQuaid

Tim Thomas(
Tuukka Rask

WILMINGTON, Mass. -- Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien said after practice on Wednesday that he would have a better update on the status of forward Nathan Horton (mild concussion) on Thursday.

“He’s continuing to progress,” Julien said. “It’s not a negative thing, but right now he’s still not capable of skating. It’s still one day at a time. Our doctors have evaluated him and they like the progress he’s making, but he’s not ready, yet.”

If Horton continues to progress, he could start physical activity on Thursday.

Horton suffered the injury in the second period against Philadelphia on Jan. 22 when he was on the receiving end of a late hit by the Flyers' Tom Sestito. Horton stayed in the game for the remainder of the period but sat out the third.

WILMINGTON, Mass. -- Boston Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid missed practice on Wednesday morning at Ristuccia Arena due to a lower-body injury he suffered late in the third period of Tuesday’s 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators at TD Garden.

He’s questionable for Thursday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes, according to Bruins coach Claude Julien. McQuaid caught a rut late in the game and was shaken up on the play.

“We felt it was better to keep him off the ice today and we’ll re-evaluate his situation tomorrow morning,” Julien said. “Hopefully we’ll get him back on the ice tomorrow.”

McQuaid also dropped the gloves late in the first period with the Senators’ Zenon Konopka, but Julien said the blueliner was not injured during the fight.

The Bruins will have fellow defenseman Andrew Ference back in the lineup Thursday after he completed his three-game suspension.

BOSTON -- During the Stanley Cup playoffs last spring, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick showed his support for the Boston Bruins and attended a few games at TD Garden.

Belichick wasn’t shy when he was shown on the video board as he stood up and waved a rally towel frantically to get the fans going. The place erupted the few times he did it. Bruins coach Claude Julien appreciated the gesture and he plans on returning the favor in his own way on Tuesday.

Since today is the Super Bowl’s Media Day, Julien said he would send Belichick either a text message or leave him a voicemail today, wishing the Patriots good luck.

“I’m certainly not going to chat with him because I know what the coach is going through at this time,” Julien said. “But, certainly, that’s going to happen. I want him to know he has my support. I’m looking forward to the game.”

The Bruins are playing at 12:30 on Sunday in Washington against the Capitals, so the early puck drop will give Julien and his players time to enjoy the Super Bowl.

“It would have been disappointing had we had a mid-afternoon game because we would have missed some of it,” Julien said. “It’s going to be exciting.”

Julien is picking the Patriots to win, 31-28.

“I’m taking the Patriots,” Julien said. “I don’t care what anybody says. I’m cheering for them and I think it’s going to be a tight game.

“A lot of it depends whether [Rob] Gronkowski plays, to me, that’s a big factor,” added Julien.

Julien, of course, joined the fraternity of local coaches who have won championships in Boston after the Bruins won the Stanley Cup last spring. In fact, he’s been an avid Red Sox fan for the majority of his adult life, and it’s also no secret he roots for the Patriots, too.

A native of Ontario, Julien became a Red Sox fan when he was coaching junior hockey for the Hull Olympiques of the QMJHL during the 1996-97 season. At the time, Pedro Martinez was pitching for the Montreal Expos, and the owner of the team, Claude Brochu, was also part owner of the Hull junior hockey team. Martinez would attend Hull games when Julien was the coach.

“Something about the Red Sox attracted me, so he probably helped me become a Red Sox fan,” explained Julien. “Since then I’ve stuck with the Red Sox. He’s moved on, but I stuck with the Red Sox.

“And the Patriots, for some reason, there’s something about them that I liked. As a younger person, I went from the 49ers, to Pittsburgh and now the Patriots. I’ve been a Patriots fan, for easily, a dozen years.”

The Bruins created a good luck video with management, coaches and players all wishing the Patriots good luck in the Super Bowl.

BOSTON -- The Boston Bruins return from the All-Star break and will host the Ottawa Senators Tuesday night at TD Garden.

Even though the Bruins are 2-0 versus the Senators already this season, Ottawa still presents a big challenge. The Senators are currently ranked sixth in the Eastern Conference, only four points behind the second-place Bruins. The Senators are 13-10-5 on the road this season.

They’re led by veterans Daniel Alfredsson (17 goals and 21 assists) and Jason Spezza (20 goals and 30 assists), while goaltender Craig Anderson has posted a 25-16-4 record with a 2.90 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage.

Bruins coach Claude Julien credits Ottawa coach Paul MacLean for brining the Senators together as a team and building strong chemistry.

“You can see it in their play,” Julien said. “They play hard and they don’t hang their heads, they compete hard and if they weren’t a happy group, at one point you would see them let their game slip away, but they don’t.”

The Senators have exceeded expectations this season to a lot of people, but Julien said he’s not surprised by Ottawa’s success.

“It may be a surprise for a lot of people where they are, but I would tell you right now that they’re the real deal,” Julien said.

The Bruins defeated the Senators 5-3 on Nov. 1 and 5-2 on Dec. 14 this season. Beginning Tuesday night, the teams meet four more times this season.

“I see a hardworking team that’s pretty well coached with a goalie who is fairly hot this year,” said Bruins forward Shawn Thornton. “I played with him in the minors and when he’s on, he’s on. They’re definitely not sneaking up on anybody any more. It’s going to be a good for us coming out of the break.”

BOSTON -- It took almost one week for the NHL to fine Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand $2,500 for a slew-footing incident against the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Matt Niskanen on Dec. 5.

The league ruled on Monday and Marchand addressed the situation after the Bruins’ morning skate on Tuesday. He explained that he met with Brendan Shanahan, the NHL’s vice president of player safety, on Monday to discuss the incident. Shanahan was actually in Boston to meet with the entire Bruins team, as he does with all teams.

“They’re trying to protect guys and it doesn’t matter if it’s a week later, or not,” Marchand said. “It served its purpose.

“It was a dangerous play and it was definitely a slew-foot,” Marchand said. “Those are dangerous plays and guys can get hurt like that. It’s something I shouldn’t have done and they penalized me for it and I’ll move on now.”

Immediately after Marchand was called for tripping, he confronted Niskanen in order to take the blame and get any retribution over with right there and then.

“It was a bit of a cheap shot, so I wanted to get it over with and answer the bell, I guess,” explained Marchand.

Time and again Bruins coach Claude Julien has had to discipline Marchand for crossing the line with his physical play, and this situation was no different.

“When it happened I addressed it right after the period,” explained Julien. “Slew-footing is certainly not something that I like to see, whether it’s for or against us. If he’s going to be doing that then he’s going to get fined and he’s deserving of it.

“He has to own up to his mistakes and he’s done a good job of doing that. Again, we talk about a young player who’s trying to find that fine line and not cross it. There are times when he does and he gets fined. We’ve addressed it.”

Marchand is at his best when he’s getting under the skin of his opponents. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

“As I’ve put it in my own words: I want him to be a good brat, not a bad brat,” Julien said. “That means don’t cross the line and I think he did that time. His response was, ‘I thought I was going to get away with it.’ That’s not what you want to see from your players.”

WILMINGTON, Mass. -- Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien knows first-hand what it’s like to be fired from a job in the NHL.

He was relieved of his coaching duties by the Montreal Canadiens during the 2005-2006 season, then was fired by the New Jersey Devils the following season before he landed with the Bruins.

When he learned of the news that the Carolina Hurricanes (Paul Maurice) and Washington Capitals (Bruce Boudreau) both replaced their respective coaches, Julien expressed his thoughts on the situation.

“You’re going to hear me repeat myself every time something like that happens,” Julien said. “It’s not a fun thing for those guys. It’s a tough job. [Firing a coach] is probably the easiest thing to do, but it’s not necessarily the main reason for the issues. Those guys are just like anybody else, they have families and they have responsibilities and sometimes they’re easy targets.

“You feel for them, but the one thing I know is that they are pretty good coaches and I don’t doubt that we’ll see them back in the league soon.”

Since the Hurricanes and Capitals are both in the Eastern Conference, Julien doesn’t know the type of impact the coaching changes will make.

“We’ll have to wait and see,” he said. “What that does normally is it always gives the team a spark when a new face comes in. But how long does that spark last? We don’t know. You’ve seen that happen before and sometimes it’s the short term, and sometimes it’s the long term. Only time will tell.”

Washington hired former Capital Dale Hunter to replace Boudreau. Hunter has spent the last 11 seasons as president and coach of the OHL’s London Knights. Current Bruins forward Chris Kelly played his last season of junior hockey for Hunter in 2000-2001.

“I think he’ll do a good in Washington,” Kelly. “When you play that many games and get your number retired anywhere that’s pretty impressive. I wish him all the best.”

Even though Hunter has been coaching junior hockey and this will be his first time behind an NHL bench, Kelly believes the transition will be a smooth one for the former NHLer.

“Instantly he’ll have the respect,” Kelly said. “With the way he played and the way he conducted himself throughout his career, I think he’ll have the players’ respect right from Day 1. Maybe some coaches have to go in and earn the players’ respect, but he’ll have that right from Day 1.”

BOSTON -- With the Bruins coming into their first Northeast Division tilt struggling to find the net and averaging a league-worst 1.67 goals-per-game, coach Claude Julien figured it was time to shake things up a bit and reconfigured the top three lines.

Julien had Chris Kelly centering Milan Lucic and Tyler Seguin; Patrice Bergeron centering Nathan Horton and Brad Marchand; and David Krejci centering Rich Peverley and Benoit Pouliot. The grind line of Daniel Paille, Gregory Campbell and Shawn Thornton remained the same.

The moves paid off in the 6-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs as Lucic scored his first goal of the season and added two assists; Horton found his game again with a goal and an assist; Seguin had a goal and two assists; Kelly had a goal and an assist; and Bergeron lit the lamp as well. Julien once again looked like a genius as the Bruins suddenly found their scoring touch. But after the game, Julien wasn’t accepting praise. He was just happy to see his team get a much-needed win and find a way to score.

"For me, it’s not about satisfaction. It’s about doing the right thing for the team," Julien said. "When it works, great. Had it not worked, I would have been back at the board tonight and trying to figure something else out. It’s nice that it did work; it makes my job a lot easier. It was nice to see the guys, a lot of the guys that have been battling through it, manage to do well tonight: Horton gets that first goal, Lucic I thought really looked more like the Looch we know. Among others, David Krejci comes back in and has a pretty solid game.

"So we got a lot of good things out of a lot of players, and I think it was nice to see. It was refreshing, and sometimes that’s what you’ve got to do. You’ve got to mix things up a little bit and give them a little bit of a sting, and usually that sting is a positive sting."

As Julien pointed out, the previous lines weren’t clicking, but he felt it was more a case of each individual player not playing the way he needed to. The hope was that these line changes would snap them out of their funks.

"It was maybe less about the chemistry and more about yourself," Julien said. "We put certain guys on certain lines so they could find their own game. I thought Looch with Kelly, and then Segs just got good speed, good skill, and it just made him skate hard and retrieve pucks for them and make plays, so that was good.

"And then Horts, the minute you play with Bergy and Marsh, you have to have your work ethic going and your compete level, and he did that tonight. For a lot of players, it was just about finding their own game."

Seguin agreed with his coach and was glad Julien saw it was time for a change.

"I think it was definitely a good thing because no one really had too much chemistry," Seguin said. "And when all the lines are mixed up you kind of just focus on playing your best. And with that tonight everyone kind of just focused on your game and what they have to do in taking accountability and I think that’s why we were successful. Not thinking about the chemistry and just ‘I need to do my role’ and things will work out and that’s what happened tonight."

The message was clearly sent and received, and now the key will be to keep it going.

“Yeah, I mean, obviously it's a message that's sent that we need to be better and to find ways to create some offense so we got the message and we have to keep going now,” Seguin said.

BOSTON -- It may have been only the third game of the season, but Bruins coach Claude Julien wasn’t holding back any punches following what could best be described as a flat performance by his team in a 1-0 loss to the Avalanche on Monday afternoon. The Bruins wasted a 35-save performance by goalie Tuukka Rask and appeared to be skating in quicksand throughout the game.

Asked if was impressed with his team's effort Monday, Julien said, “I don’t think I can stand here and say I was. We got outworked by a team that was a lot more hungry than we were. Right from the get-go, as soon as they got that power play, it gave them some momentum and then they just never looked back. Throughout the game, I felt our team was second on the puck. We’re losing the races, and whenever we got there and got into battle, they certainly were a lot hungrier than we were.

“I think it’s one of those games that you hope will give your players the opportunity to realize that what we’ve talked about since the beginning, with every team coming in here and playing us hard is going to happen. And from the start, from the time they were in the room, I could feel that there was maybe a little bit too much comfort and that we have to understand that if we’re not going to get prepared the same way every night, we’re going to have more of those nights.”

The Bruins' top line of Milan Lucic, David Krejci and Nathan Horton has yet to get going. On Monday, the Bruins needed that trio to jumpstart the offense, and Julien wasn’t shy in pointing that out.

“When your top line is supposed to be your top line, it should try and be that every night,” Julien said. “And so far I don’t think they’re in sync, I don’t think they’re working hard enough as a group. But it’s part of our job here to get those guys going and whether it’s through breaking them up or whether it’s through meetings, we’ve got to find a way to get those guys going. Right now I don’t think those three, any one of those three, has found his game yet that we know they can play. They’re certainly a little under-par right now.”

Julien said that he sensed before the game that his team might turn in a lackadaisical outing against a young, hungry Colorado squad.

“Sometimes you can feel the looseness in the dressing room,” he said. “This is starting my fifth year, and you kind of learn to read your team better all the time. And tonight I came in and I told my coaches and I even brought that to their attention before the game. I said, you know what, we seem a little loose in here. We might want to focus a little bit better because we’re going to be surprised if we’re not. If you show up at the rink a certain way, you can’t just turn the switch off and then decide all of a sudden you’re going to change your attitude. It’s how you wake up in the morning, it’s how you see the game. If you come to the rink unprepared then it shows.”

The disappointed bench boss made sure to assert that the Bruins' participation in a Stanley Cup ceremony at Gillette Stadium Sunday before the Patriots-Jets game wasn’t the reason his team came out flat, even before he was asked about it by reporters.

“Certainly one thing I’m going to clarify right now is yesterday had absolutely nothing to do with us today,” Julien said. “It think yesterday was great for the guys. It was great that the Patriots acknowledged us. And as professionals you certainly should be able to turn the page the next day and do your job. So if there’s somebody to blame, it’s ourselves and nobody else.”