Report: Bruins' Brad Marchand says certain players were responsible for their bad season.

The Boston Bruins despite just barely missing the playoffs were heavily criticized last season by fans and media alike in Boston, a city that expects excellence year in and year out from their sport franchises.

That criticism quickly led to the dismissal of general manager Peter Chiarelli and many speculated that head coach Claude Julien could be next despite the fact he had multiple years left on his contract.

In the end Boston opted to retain Julien, and on Monday during a sit down interview with Bruins insider Joe Haggerty, star forward Brad Marchand revealed that he felt it was the correct decision.

“There’s nothing wrong with our coaching staff,” said Marchand. “That wasn't the reason that we didn't make the playoffs last year. We didn’t have guys pulling their weight. When you look at the system, it’s worked for a long time now. We've won a cup we went to another finals, we won the league a couple years later.”

Marchand chose not to elaborate on exactly which players he was referring to however he did seem to indicate that some of the off season changes may have been for the better.

"We've made some changes hopefully that will spark the guys and we will come in this year and we're all gonna work together."

We won't speculate on what players he could be referring to, but it's probably not too hard for fans to draw their own conclusions.

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Image courtesy Keystone Press.