BOSTON (AP) — If it wasn’t clear to Claude Julien before he took the job in Boston, it quickly became obvious that the Bruins were struggling in the summer of 2007– on the ice, and in the hearts of the local fans.
A month after he was hired, the Boston Celtics assembled the new Big Three that would lead the NBA’s most-decorated franchise to its record 17th championship. Come October, the Red Sox won the World Series for the second time in four seasons. And by the end of the year the Patriots, who had won three Super Bowls in the previous six years, would wrap up a 16-0 regular season.
The dominant pro franchise in the city for most of the century, the Bruins had become an afterthought.
But it was nothing they couldn’t cure with a Stanley Cup championship of their own.
