Claude Julien ready to take his Bruins into battle with the Rangers. (AP)

Claude Julien isn’t apologizing for his team’s miracle in Game 7 Monday night that has them opening an Eastern Conference semifinal series with the Rangers.

He also doesn’t want his team apologizing for being there either.

“For some reason, this last series seems to have been looked upon as negative for some people,” Julien said after Thursday’s pre-game skate at TD Garden, hours before Game 1 with the Rangers.

“For us, it was a great character win, we’re looking forward to moving ahead and we’re not looking at it the way a lot of people are looking at it. It’s not a chance to redeem yourself because we’re in the second round, we don’t have to redeem ourselves for anything. What we have to do here is look forward to this series and do whatever we can to move ahead. The character win that this team showed in Game Seven should be looked upon as a positive. That’s the way I look at it.”

One thing is for certain, no one is going to feel sorry for the Bruins having three injured defenseman heading into the series. With Andrew Ference, Dennis Seidenberg and Wade Redden all missing Thursday’s skate, it’s high likely that Dougie Hamilton, Torey Krug and Matt Bartkowski will all play in Game 1 against the Rangers Thursday night.

The one advantage of it all, though, is the fact that two of the three, Krug and Bartkowski, have played the same defensive system with AHL Providence this year.

“It helps everybody because [Providence Head Coach] Bruce Cassidy and his coaching staff seem to see the game the same way we do,” Julien said. “There’s a good connection there in the way we coach our teams, very much the same approach. I know I’ve talked to Bruce; the things we do, he does as well.
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Bruce Cassidy was named the head coach of the Providence Bruins, the B’s minor-league affiliate in the American Hockey League, Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli announced Saturday morning.

Cassidy has some experience as a head coach at all levels of the professional game. He was head coach of the Capitals starting in 2002-03 and compiled a 47-45-9-6 record in parts of two seasons in Washington while leading the team to a playoff berth in his first year. Previous to that, he had spent one season as an AHL head coach, leading Grand Rapids to a 42-27-11-0 record in 2001-02 before moving on to the Caps. He had also headed teams in both the IHL and ECHL.

Cassidy had worked as an assistant for the P-Bruins for the past three seasons under Rob Murray, who was let go after the team failed to make the postseason for the second straight season. During those three years, the team had garnered a record of 117-103-10-10.