Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin gave head coach Claude Julien and his staff a vote of confidence when he met with the media Monday in Brossard after the NHL trade deadline had passed.
“I think they’ve worked really hard and the message has been the same and it’s what I believe in,” Bergevin said. “We need to be committed for 60 minutes and pay attention to details and be more consistent and that’s what I believe and that’s the message that they’re telling the players.”
Asked directly if he still supports Julien, the GM said: “Yes.”
When Julien met with the media Tuesday morning in Brossard, he said he appreciated Bergevin’s words.
“Well, it’s always good when your GM gives you that vote of confidence, but you’ve heard that before, right?” Julien said with a smile. “And two weeks later, the coach is gone.”
Julien has been around long enough to know how the NHL works, coaching in his 1,250th career game Tuesday night at the Bell Centre against the Vancouver Canucks.
Julien has been fired three times in the NHL, the first time by the Canadiens after a 19-16-6 start to the 2005-06 season when he was replaced by GM Bob Gainey and Guy Carbonneau, who would be an assistant for the remainder of that season before taking over the head-coaching job.
“ It was necessary for me to make a move, ” Gainey said at the time. “ There are players who went through tough times, maybe injuries or personal things. It’s normal for a player to go through periods where they’re not at their best, but when it goes on for a month or more, it’s not normal. ”
The Canadiens went 23-15-3 with Gainey behind the bench and lost in the first round of the playoffs.
Julien was fired again the next year, this time by New Jersey with only three games left in the regular season and the Devils having a 47-24-8 record.
“I did not feel that we were going in the right direction, both mentally and hockey(-wise), going into the playoffs, for a variety of reasons,” Lou Lamoriello, who was the Devils GM, said at the time.
Lamoriello took over behind the bench and the Devils lost in the second round of the playoffs.
Julien would then go on to coach the Boston Bruins for 10 seasons, winning the Stanley Cup in 2011 before he was fired with a 26-23-6 record in 2016-17 after missing the playoffs the two previous seasons. Assistant coach Bruce Cassidy took over and the Bruins went 18-8-1 the rest of the season before losing in the first round of the playoffs.
Bergevin hired Julien to coach the Canadiens for a second time only a week after the Bruins fired him. The Canadiens had a 31-19-8 record at the time under Michel Therrien and then went 16-7-1 under Julien before losing in the first round of the playoffs.
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The Canadiens are almost certain to miss the playoffs for a third straight season under Julien, but there’s no reason to believe Bergevin’s vote of confidence Monday wasn’t genuine. Firing Julien isn’t going to solve the Canadiens’ problems and it’s up to Bergevin to give his coach more to work with.
Julien has two more seasons at US$5 million a year on his contract and it would be surprising if owner/president Geoff Molson would be willing to eat that money while allowing Bergevin to fire his second coach in three years. Bergevin also has two more seasons on his contract and Molson appears to still believe in the GM’s “reset” of the team.
“Listen, we’re working hard with what we have here,” Julien said. “We can’t obviously divulge everything. Unfortunately, that’s part of the game. But we have a plan, we’re going in a direction, we’re going to keep working with some of those young guys and we’re going to keep getting better as a team. So that’s what we’re doing right now and we’re doing that as a group — coaches, GM and everybody that surrounds us.
“We’re going to keep pushing,” Julien added. “Are your chances to make the playoffs great? No. Are they slim? Yes. But they’re still there. I think this group here wants to give themselves a chance and we’re all part of it, coaching staff and players, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
Julien received a second vote of confidence Monday from Ilya Kovalchuk after Bergevin traded the veteran Russian winger to the Washington Capitals.
“He gave me all the opportunity in the world,” Kovalchuk said about Julien. “I played 20 minutes, power play, first power play, first line, so it was great. There was a few injuries there. He’s an old-school coach, but I like that. He’s straight up. He would say in your face everything that he thinks, if you’re good or bad. So I think that’s good. I like him a lot.”
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