Claude Julien and Kirk Muller were fired as coach and associate coach of the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday.
Assistant Dominique Ducharme takes over as coach and Alexandre Burrows was added to the coaching staff. Assistant Luke Richardson and goaltending coach Stephane Waite were each retained.
“I would like to sincerely thank Claude and Kirk for their contributions to our team over the past five years during which we worked together. I have great respect for these two men whom I hold in high regard,” Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said. “In Dominique Ducharme, we see a very promising coach who will bring new life and new energy to our group. We feel that our team can achieve high standards and the time had come for a change. ”
The Canadiens (9-5-3) have one win in their past six games (1-3-2) after 8-2-2 start. They are fourth in the Scotia North Division, three points ahead of the Calgary Flames, after adding forwards Tyler Toffoli and Josh Anderson, goalie Jake Allen, and defensemen Joel Edmundson and Alexander Romanov during the offseason.
The top four teams in each division will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
“I think we’re pretty much all up in our own heads right now,” forward Nick Suzuki said after a 3-2 overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Sunday. “I think just overthinking it, playing not to lose, and that’s never a good thing to do.”
Julien agreed to a five-year contract with the Canadiens on Feb. 14, 2017, eight days after he was fired by the Boston Bruins, that ends after this season. The 60-year-old was hospitalized because of chest pains experienced after a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference First Round on Aug. 12, with Muller taking over. He had a heart procedure and left the Stanley Cup Playoffs before Montreal was eliminated in Game 6 of the best-of-7 series.
“Right now, I’m back 100 percent,” Julien told NHL.com on Nov. 23. “My heart is 100 percent. So the only thing that was hurting me for a while was the fact that the blood flow wasn’t going through my heart with one of the arteries being blocked. I think that’s been fixed and I’m back to being 100 percent, so as long as my health is good, and my passion and excitement remains, I’d love to keep coaching as long as I can.
“Health is an important thing, but the other part that’s really important is your passion and your excitement and everything else. I love going to the rink every day to working with players and then preparing for games and practices. As long as you love your job and you have the energy to do it and the passion to do it, that’s the most important part versus whether you feel like you should retire because you’ve been coaching long enough.”
Julien is 667-445-152 with 10 ties in 18 seasons for the Canadiens, New Jersey Devils and Bruins. He was voted the Jack Adams Award winner as NHL coach of the year in 2009 and won the Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 2011, is 13th in NHL history in wins, and his 1,274 games coached are 17th. He was in his sixth season of his second stint with the Canadiens, having begun his NHL coaching career with them in the 2002-03 season.
Ducharme was a Canadiens assistant for two seasons. The 47-year-old coached Canada to first place at the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship after a second-place finish the year before.
Photo courtesy of NHL.com
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