After the championship core of Devils had become skeptical that Claude Julien possessed either the inner core of toughness or independence from Lou Lamoriello to lead the team to a Stanley Cup, one of the veterans intentionally shot a puck at Julien during a drill to test how the coach would respond. The story goes that when Julien refused to confront the athlete or even acknowledge the overt act of disrespect, the players concluded that the head coach would have to go, and essentially fired him.