Canadiens fired Julien as coach with skid following high hopes

The Montreal Canadiens' underachievement of late, a troubling reminder for general manager Marc Bergevin of two lengthy losing streaks last season, ultimately cost coach Claude Julien his job.

Julien and associate coach Kirk Muller were fired Wednesday, less than 12 hours after a 5-4 shootout loss to the Ottawa Senators. Assistant Dominique Ducharme replaced Julien as coach, with Alexandre Burrows joining as an assistant.
"The effort was always there," Bergevin said Wednesday in Winnipeg, where the Canadiens play the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday (8 p.m. ET, TSN3, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV). "Claude didn't lose the dressing room, but I saw a team that had lost a bit of a sense of direction."
Ducharme was called "a new model of coach" and hailed as a strong communicator by Bergevin, who said he was the only choice to replace Julien and is "100 percent" going to remain through the end of the season.
The Canadiens entered this season with a new look and the lofty expectations of management, players and fans.
They were 7-1-2 through their first 10 games but 2-4-2 in their past eight, including consecutive losses to the Senators, who are last in the Scotia North Division.
Julien and Muller had a smaller safety net than they would have had this been a conventional season, with any kind of extended slump potentially fatal given a 56-game schedule.
"It happens in professional sports when the coach continues to give the words of instruction but after a time the message doesn't get through," Bergevin said. "What I saw in the last week, and a little of what happened last year (skids of 0-5-3 and 0-7-1), with a season that is short, I made the decision to make a change. ...
"I can't pinpoint an exact moment when. I add up night after night in the last few weeks ... it's OK, it happens that you have a setback, it's hard to play the same way every single night. But I saw repetition of what happened in the past. We had injuries (last season), but this year, knock on wood, we've been healthy. I just saw a pattern ... I didn't want to wait much longer."

The Canadiens' strong start after a surprising victory against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers last season was exactly what was hoped for, especially after free agent signings of forwards Tyler Toffoli, Corey Perry and Michael Frolik; defenseman Joel Edmundson; and backup goalie Jake Allen. Forward Josh Anderson was acquired in a trade with the Columbus Blue Jackets for forward Max Domi, and two veterans -- forward Brendan Gallagher and defenseman Jeff Petry -- each signed a long-term contract extension.
"We have high expectations internally. We won't hide that. We have to perform," Bergevin said when the Canadiens opened training camp Jan. 3.
But any early-season momentum has evaporated, the Canadiens no longer playing the style that gave them early success. Beyond that, captain Shea Weber said before the latest loss that he felt "a lot of negative energy around."
Bergevin said he hadn't noticed that but realized the message Julien was communicating to the players was not translating to positive results on the ice.
Through 18 games, the Canadiens' four centers have scored a combined eight goals: Nick Suzuki has scored four; Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Jake Evans each has scored two; and Phillip Danault, who plays between Gallagher and Toffoli on the first line, has none.
Forward Tomas Tatar, Montreal's leading scorer last season with 61 points (22 goals, 39 assists) in 68 games, has scored four goals, one in his past 15 games. He was a healthy scratch against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.
Goalie Carey Price had excellent moments and others far less stellar; he's 5-3-3 with a 2.95 goals-against average and .893 save percentage. Allen has been solid in seven games (4-2-1, 2.14 GAA, .932 save percentage).
Montreal has not lost in regulation on the road this season (6-0-4), but at home, an issue last season, is shaky again. The Canadiens are 3-5-0 at Bell Centre after they were 14-17-6 in 2019-20.
Entering Wednesday, the Canadiens' power play was ranked 20th in the NHL at 18.2 percent (10-for-55), scoring twice in its past 30 opportunities. The penalty kill was ranked 22nd at 76.4 percent (17 goals allowed in 72 kill attempts). Montreal has three more power-play goals than they've scored shorthanded (10-7).
When the Canadiens made their free agent signings in the offseason, they clearly weren't building for the future. The goal was to win, or to be very competitive, right now.
The firing of Julien marked the end of the coach's second tour as Montreal coach. It had been an extraordinary 2020 postseason for the 60-year-old, who was hospitalized after Game 1 against the Penguins with a coronary arterial blockage that required emergency surgery. Muller took over for Games 2-6, and Julien recovered fully to resume his duties before and during training camp and into this season.
But with the Canadiens sliding down the standings in this short season, Bergevin decided Wednesday he couldn't afford to wait to make a change.
"It [was] emotional," Bergevin said, praising the work of Julien and Muller and their qualities off the ice. "They're good people. It's not fun. It's a tough part of my job, and to walk in the rooms of these two men this morning was not easy."