Now, before people get all upset, hear me out. I’m not saying that we should bring back Therrien, it’s a known thing that he’s a huge asshole and that most people dislike him. But we should simply look at the stats.
In the 5 years as our HC, Therrien made the playoffs 4 times, including the year he got fired. He finished 1st in our division 3 of those 4 times. If you look at our rosters in those years, you can clearly see that it’s less talented than the one we have now. I’m not saying that our roster today is overly-talented, but I’d say we fit nicely around the league average in terms of raw talent. Where is the difference between us and the other teams? Carey Price. I understand our team is young and that we traded away a lot of assets, but I’m not just talking about this season. Look at our seasons under CJ since he replaced MT. He’s now had 3 full seasons under his belt, finishing 6th, 4th, and 5th in our division. Albeit, we were unlucky to not make the playoffs last year, but still.
Simply, his system just doesn’t fit our team. We used to get laughed about around the league because we were small and not physical, but Therrien used that to our advantage. We played with tons of speed and did it well too. Was it perfect? No, but it worked. His defensive system was boring, but at least we were winning games.
It seems that CJ is trying to implement a system similar to the one that he had success with when he was coaching the Bruins. Lots of physical play, dump and chase. The problem is that we lack the size to play that system effectively. The oldschool “big bad bruins” were perfect for that system, they were a team full of bulldozers that loved scoring scrappy goals. Hell, they won a cup playing like that. Hence why the Flyers have had such an easy time defending against us, because they just clog the neutral zone and stop us entirely in our tracks, or win most of the battles along the boards, because of our size.
Look, CJ is not a bad coach. He’s even a very good one. But with the team that we have currently, it’s just not a good fit. We need a coaching staff that can use our skill and speed to our advantage. And don’t get me started on Kirk. Love the guy, but our PP is embarassing. I don’t want Therrien back, but I do think that we could try something else. The NHL is evolving, teams are focusing less on size and more on skill. There’s a new generation of coaches coming into the league and they’re finding success. I think someone like Ducharme
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The first time was in the 2002-03 season
Edit: Forgot about John Paddock in 2008 with the Sens. But hey, who hasn't?
Habs fan here.
Speculation is rampant that, if the Bruins miss the playoffs, they'll can Claude Julien.
Speculation is also rampant that if this were to occur, Montreal would fire Therrien and snap up Julien.
Bob McKenzie himself has stated that it would be a huge mistake for the Bruins to fire Julien and that he'd be hired in no-time.
I'd love to see Therrien fired, but I don't know why Julien is supposedly that much better. Please tell me what makes Julien so much better a coach than Therrien?
I'm not trying to say he isn't better, I just want to understand why.
