Claude Julien may be new to Boston, but he quickly showed he's not new to the coaching profession.
While the veterans reported for physicals and an optional skate to get the Bruins training camp under way yesterday at the Garden, Julien spent nearly a half hour speaking to reporters without revealing any details he did not want to divulge about his plan to turn the floundering franchise around.
"You guys are trying to get all my secrets out of me today, and we haven't even been on the ice yet," joked Julien, who comes to Boston after previous coaching stints in Montreal and New Jersey. "You'll see. I don't want to tip my hat on everything I'm going to do."
Actually, while Julien refused to take the bait on questions about his plans for specific players, he was quite forthcoming on a number of subjects. In particular, he was more than happy to discuss his goals for the club, which finished last in the Northeast Division in each of the last two seasons.
"More than anything else, I'm really excited about hopefully bringing this team to where everybody wants it to be," said Julien. "We've got a great challenge ahead of us, and that's what motivates us as coaches, trying to make a difference here. We hope the guys will buy in and do what is going to make them successful, because that's the only way you can have fun in this game, by being successful."
To get the players to buy into his system, Julien has been meeting with them individually. Those conversations no doubt have featured a few more specifics than he's given up to the media.
"Players have to be clear on their roles," said Julien. "That's what I'm slowly going to do as camp goes on. I've talked to the players and told them what we expect of them. I think we're going to make everything as clear as possible. We're going to eliminate the gray areas and put a team plan together that's going to make everybody comfortable because they're going to understand exactly what they need to do."
A clear and simple game plan is just what the Bruins are craving after the muddled mess of last year's season under Dave Lewis.
"Sometimes athletes aren't always the smartest guys," said defenseman Aaron Ward with a smile. "It's a good thing to have that direction and give us a system where there's not a lot of thinking involved.
"You got to be cohesive," added Ward on a more serious note. "You've got to have that discipline. You've got to have that commitment to everyone being on one page and there not even being any more pages to look at."
To get everyone on the same page, Julien insists on treating everyone the same. There won't be any special star treatment or personal favorites on his watch.
"Everybody has an important role," said Julien. "There are different roles, but everybody has an important role on our hockey club. When you play 82 games, at some point every individual is going to be part of the reason why we won that hockey game.
"So there's no reason we should categorize guys or say you're more important than the other guy. They're all at the same level, whether you're a first-line player or fourth line, first defenseman or sixth or seventh defenseman. They're all going to feel like they're part of this hockey club."
And everyone in camp is going to get a chance to be part of that club.
"It's an opportunity for guys to seize, to go out there and prove themselves," said Julien. "This is what training camp is for. I get to see where guys are at.
"I'm not going to say there's 1, 2, 3 spots open," added Julien when asked how many jobs might be up for grabs. "But there are some spots open."
Julien plans to start this year with a fresh slate. He doesn't want to pigeonhole players into certain roles without first seeing what they can do in camp.
"That's one thing I will never do," said Julien. "There are no preconceived notions with me. They have an opportunity to show me what they can do. Once they do that, then we'll have a better idea where we want to utilize them."
And after the first day of official off-ice tests and on-ice workouts, Julien was impressed with his new charges.
"This group of guys has come in (to camp) in very good shape and they've been here early, which shows me that they're anxious to get going," said Julien, who was impressed with the turnout for informal workouts last week in Wilmington. "So there are a lot of things that are looking positive right now. We just have to build on that and keep pushing forward."
(Douglas Flynn is a Daily News staff writer. He can be reached at 508-626-4405 or dflynn@cnc.com.)
