On Thursday, the Boston Bruins did the right thing. They brought back Claude Julien behind the bench, despite rumors swirling that there would be a change. It’s also a credit to him; he could have given the Bruins indication that he was ready to move on. Had he done so, this would have been a summer in which he could have hand-picked his next job.

Going through a transition process isn’t easy on coaches, especially a proven winner like Julien.

“I don’t want to be that guy that bails just because all of a sudden you hit a bump in the road,” Julien said during his news conference in Boston. “I want to be that guy that perseveres.”

With the most important decision of the offseason out of the way early in Boston, focus can shift to where there is actually an issue: Defense.