Canadiens: Therrien Out Julien In

[fcalog 58]

History repeats itself 13 years later

http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/nhl/claude-julien-returns-montreal-michel-therrien-fired-1.3982888

[chippa13 1844]

I guess there aren't as many bilingual coaches out there as I thought there were. This might be a record for the fastest divisional rival hiring of a fired coach. It is interesting that the Bruins granted permission for the Habs to talk to Julien so soon.

[althoma1 574]

I'm not a big fan of the hiring.  Last time Julien was the head coach I remember a lot of trapping and boring hockey. He does of course have a history of winning,  but I would rather have someone who is a little more offensively minded. Of course I would also still rather have Subban instead of Weber; so the management obviously has a different mindset. 

[icewalker_bg 126]

1 hour ago, althoma1 said:

I'm not a big fan of the hiring.  Last time Julien was the head coach I remember a lot of trapping and boring hockey. He does of course have a history of winning,  but I would rather have someone who is a little more offensively minded. Of course I would also still rather have Subban instead of Weber; so the management obviously has a different mindset. 

Fan or not, if Bergevin was in a situation where he absolutely had to fire and hire quick, which seemes like he was, Claude Julien is a no brainer out of the available FRENCH speaking coaches. You have to remember, a french speaking coach is up there in the requirements, you dont want a riot. 

[fcalog 58]

Ah, the irony of the Bruins coming to the aid of the floundering Habs, giving them permission to approach Julien and being hired by them.  Althoma1 I would hardly call the Canadiens hockey under Therrien exciting hockey. Dump and chase.  What players developed under Therrien? None. The same cannot be said for the Bruins under Julien, even this year. They got rid of Subban, (as the problem), but they are no further ahead. Does anyone remember the last time Weber body checked anyone? Did the gang of 3 (Paciorety, Weber, and Price) have a hand in the firing of Therrien?  Will Julien make a difference given the talent pool the Habs have?

 

[althoma1 574]

Crawford, Roy and Muller were other options,  but there's no doubt Julien has the strongest resume. You can hire translators for the press and there are probably more players that speak Russian than French on the team. 

My Grandmother was French Canadian and it's why I am I Canadiens fan despite the fact that I grew up in Ontario and Alberta. I understand that the team is in Quebec and has a large French fanbase. All communications should be in both official languages, but the best person for the job should be hired. Now, with his resume and the fact that management seems to prefer a safer game,  Julien is probably the best fit regardless of language issues.

The choice makes sense, but it's still not the one I would have preferred. I would prefer an offensive style similar to Washington or Pittsburgh, but it obviously hasn't won Washington a Cup and the rosters are of course different.  I will obviously be happy if Julien brings in the wins, but it's also nice to be entertained. 

[althoma1 574]

8 minutes ago, fcalog said:

Ah, the irony of the Bruins coming to the aid of the floundering Habs, giving them permission to approach Julien and being hired by them.  Althoma1 I would hardly call the Canadiens hockey under Therrien exciting hockey. Dump and chase.  What players developed under Therrien? None. The same cannot be said for the Bruins under Julien, even this year. They got rid of Subban, (as the problem), but they are no further ahead. Does anyone remember the last time Weber body checked anyone? Did the gang of 3 (Paciorety, Weber, and Price) have a hand in the firing of Therrien?  Will Julien make a difference given the talent pool the Habs have?

 

Ha! I am definitely not saying Therrien coached and encouraged exciting hockey.  He needed to go, but there are certainly other coaches that are more offensively minded than Julien. Having an offence oriented coach,  Subban and another dynamic top line offensive forward would be my pipe dream, but that obviously isn't in the cards. 

[fcalog 58]

15 minutes ago, althoma1 said:

Crawford, Roy and Muller were other options,  but there's no doubt Julien has the strongest resume. You can hire translators for the press and there are probably more players that speak Russian than French on the team. 

My Grandmother was French Canadian and it's why I am I Canadiens fan despite the fact that I grew up in Ontario and Alberta. I understand that the team is in Quebec and has a large French fanbase. All communications should be in both official languages, but the best person for the job should be hired. Now, with his resume and the fact that management seems to prefer a safer game,  Julien is probably the best fit regardless of language issues.

The choice makes sense, but it's still not the one I would have preferred. I would prefer an offensive style similar to Washington or Pittsburgh, but it obviously hasn't won Washington a Cup and the rosters are of course different.  I will obviously be happy if Julien brings in the wins, but it's also nice to be entertained. 

Bob Hartley.

The Habs do not have the horses/talent/skill to play an offensive style; they have 2 1/2 lines of fourth liners, depressing as that is, they cannot even move the puck out of their own end without looking like the keystone cops. The team will do as well as Price does.

[althoma1 574]

At least guys like Moen and Weise aren't playing on the top line anymore. Byron and Danault have seen time there but that's largely due to injuries and they have decent offensive abilities. Moen would sometimes get top two line playing time on a healthy team when he should have been on the 4th line.

They do have offensive talent in Radulov, Galchenyuk, Patches and Gallagher, but really could use 2 more top 6 forwards and a mobile offensive D man. Markov is talented, but slower now and at the tail end if his career...hopefully Sergachev will fill that role in a couple of years. Plecanec has been a a good second line player in the past, but has really declined offensively this season.

I would consider trading for Yakupov. It probably wouldn't cost much and he did have chemistry with Galchenyuk in junior. Might not work out, but it would be low risk. Its also too bad they didn't go after Perron in the off season.

[RadioGaGa 162]

Saw Price refer to a "positive vibe" around the team after the first practice with Claude. I wonder if Therrien is/was just too negative all the time. You can talk about ways to improve and you can talk about what you are doing wrong. It's really the same conversation handled in 2 different ways, I think Julien's approach will be not to focus on negatives, but to talk about improving. Not that he is a pushover of a coach, but I like what he said in his post practice PC.

"Players needed to go out and feel good about themselves today, and I made sure that happened" 

After the struggles going into bye week, I'm not sure Therrien would have had that approach at all.

Loving the idea of Chucky with Pax and Radu. I just hope that isn't all the eggs in one basket. Hoping the secondary scoring (Pleky, Gally, as well as Danault, Mitchell & Byron) can find some of the early success they were having.