Danny Picard: The Bruins are a pathetic franchise right now

The Boston Bruins are pathetic.

They announced the firing of head coach Claude Julien on Tuesday morning, as the New England Patriots were getting set to leave Gillette Stadium, en route to Boston for their Super Bowl championship parade.

Then they scheduled a press conference at 11:30 a.m., which is when the Duck Boats were rolling down Boylston Street in full force.

Their goal was clear. From a public relations perspective, they would announce the controversial move and answer the difficult questions while most people in New England were too busy chanting “We want six.” And they weren’t talking about Stanley Cups.

But apparently the Bruins forgot they were in Boston.

This PR move would work in most cities. The idea that they thought it would be a wise move to sneak this one in while nobody was paying attention, in this town, is downright absurd.

What, did they think we were never going to find out? Would we be so caught up in the Patriots’ championship parade that we’d just wake up the next day and move on without reacting to the Bruins making a coaching change in the middle of the season?

I’m confused. How stupid do the Bruins think we are?

And yeah, I called this a “controversial” move because, to be quite honest, I don’t think Julien is to blame for the Bruins’ issues. Now, if they don’t make the playoffs for three straight years, does the organization have the right to make a change at the coaching position? Of course they do. But that hasn’t happened yet.

The Bruins are just one point out of a Wild Card spot, and two points behind the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs for the second and third seeds in the Atlantic Division.

Which leads me to the answer of the question, who’s behind this move and its embarrassing timing?

It has to be Jeremy and Charlie Jacobs.

The only reason you fire your coach in February, while on the playoff bubble, is to make sure you don’t get left out of the tournament again, and ultimately, to make as much money as possible, even if a Stanley Cup in the same season is nearly impossible.

Don’t try to tell me the organization believes interim coach Bruce Cassidy is the guy that’s going to lead this current Bruins roster to a championship in four months.

That’s no knock on Cassidy. He may prove to be a great NHL head coach some day. I have no idea.

My point is, what can he do differently with this team, the way it’s currently constructed, that Julien couldn’t, if they do get into the playoffs? Correct me if I’m wrong, but if your goal is to get into the tournament, shouldn’t your next goal be to win the whole damn thing? And to do that, wouldn’t you want a guy behind the bench who has already helped your organization win a Stanley Cup and took you to another Cup Final?

So, it’s pretty obvious that a coaching change right now was meant to send a message just in time for a playoff push without trading away any of the team’s veteran players. It’s obvious that ownership made this call. Just like its fingerprints were all over last year’s trade deadline.

“We aren’t going to miss the playoffs again,” might as well have been the quote they used at Tuesday’s press conference.

Oh, wait. You mean the Jacobs family didn’t show up to the press conference that took place during the Patriots’ championship parade? Shocker.

Look, at the end of the day, all I truly care about and want is that the Bruins make the right moves more than they make the wrong ones. Getting rid of Julien, this season, was the wrong move. Timing the announcement during the Patriots’ parade made it even worse.

But ultimately, firing Julien right now tells me that Bruins ownership still only cares about the same thing it cared about last year at the trade deadline: making money.

And that’s pathetic.

Listen to “The Danny Picard Show” atdannypicard.com,iTunes, andGoogle Play. Danny can also be heard weekends on WEEI 93.7 FM. Follow him on Twitter@DannyPicard.