The Montreal Canadiens have fired head coach Michel Therrien and hired Claude Julien.
This is Julien’s second go around with the Canadiens. He coached them from January 17th, 2003 until January 14th, 2006. Julien had a 72-62-10-15 record (W-L-T-OTL) with the Canadiens.
Julian has coached 942 NHL games, and has a record of 512-309-10-111.
Chris Nichols: Darren Dreger: “I believe that there was a push from ownership – at least that was the indication I was given.”
Brian Wilde: Claude Julien was vacationing. The Bruins gave the Canadiens permission and things happened fact. Therrien was not aware of anything this morning.
NHL.com: The Canadiens started the season 13-1-1, but have gone 18-18-7 since then, and 1-5-1 in their past seven.
“I would like to sincerely thank Michel for his relentless work with the Montreal Canadiens over his eight seasons behind the bench, including the last five seasons when we worked together,” Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said. “The decision to remove Michel from his coaching duties was a difficult one because I have lots of respect for him.
“I came to the conclusion that our team needed a new energy, a new voice, a new direction. Claude Julien is an experienced and well-respected coach with a good knowledge of the Montreal market. Claude has been very successful as an NHL coach and he won the Stanley Cup. Today we hired the best available coach, and one of the League’s best. I am convinced that he has the capabilities to get our team back on the winning track.”