One of the sad realities in professional sports is that when a coach is hired, it is too often the first step on a path that leads to him being fired.
Claude Julien knows this better than most coaches.
When Julien was relieved of his duties as head coach of the Canadiens on Wednesday, it was the fourth time an NHL team dumped him before a season was completed. And it was the fourth time he exited with a record above .500.
I hate seeing coaches fired. I believe that if you hire the right coach — one who is knowledgeable, honest and hard-working — there should no reason to fire him short of an indictable offence. I get particularly upset when I hear suggestions that a coach “has lost the room.” This says far more about the character of the players than it does about a coach’s ability.
The Canadiens didn’t go into their current slide because of a failure on the part of the coaching staff; they started losing games because the players on the ice made mistakes. They took bad penalties. They couldn’t do the job on special teams. And the way the No. 1 goaltender is playing , he would be no better than the No. 2 if the team wasn’t paying him US$10.5 million a season.
After giving up five goals Thursday, Carey Price talked about “sticking to the process and figuring things out.” I don’t pretend to know what the process is, but it’s obviously not working and, in a shortened season, there’s little time to figure it out.
Sports are cyclical and there are going to be ups and downs, but more teams should embrace the philosophy of the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers, who have had only three head coaches — Chuck Noll, Bill Cowher and Mike Tomlin — since 1969. Each of those coaches missed the playoffs multiple times and went through seasons with losing records, but the Steelers stuck by their man. In the same period, the Canadiens have made 21 coaching changes.
GM Marc Bergevin is on his third coach and he has been at the helm for less than a decade.
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The timeline for Julien’s NHL coaching career is interesting.
André Savard gave him his first shot in 2003, when Julien was called up from Hamilton to replace Michel Therrien. Julien had a 19-16-6 record and a .537 winning percentage when Bob Gainey fired him in 2006. Gainey wanted to make room for his good friend Guy Carbonneau , but that didn’t work out so well.
Julien wasn’t out of work long. The following season, he had the New Jersey Devils in first place in their division when Lou Lamoriello fired him with three games remaining in the regular season. Lamoriello said he felt Julien didn’t have the Devils mentally prepared for the playoffs and there were reports that some veterans, including Hall of Fame goaltender Martin Brodeur, were unhappy with the coach.
It was on to Boston the next season. Julien won coach-of-the-year honours in 2009, but he and general manager Peter Chiarelli were on thin ice after Cam Neely was named president of the Bruins in 2010 because they weren’t his guys. They received a stay of execution when Boston won the Stanley Cup in 2011. The Bruins missed the playoffs in 2016 and Julien was fired on Feb. 7, 2017, with a winning percentage of .527 in his final season.
A week later, the Canadiens hired Julien to replace Therrien for a second time. It was a bit of a surprise because the Canadiens were in first place in their division and Bergevin had described Therrien as his “foxhole buddy,” the kind of person you wanted on your side in a fight.
Bergevin said he was hiring Julien because he was the right guy.
Four years later, he wasn’t.
Caufield keeps rolling: Canadiens prospect Cole Caufield had two goals and two assists last weekend as the University of Wisconsin notched a win and a tie against Notre Dame. Caufield goes into this weekend’s doubleheader against Ohio State as the top scorer in NCAA hockey, with 19 goals and 18 assists for 37 points in 24 games.
There is a downside to Caufield’s success for Canadiens fans who would like to see him in Montreal sooner rather than later. Wisconsin has jumped to No. 5 in the polls and is all but guaranteed a spot in the NCAA tournament. While the dates and sites for the first round are still not determined, Caufield will be playing college hockey into late March or early April. The Frozen Four is scheduled for April 8-10 in Pittsburgh.
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