In the midst of an eight-game losing streak, should the Montreal Canadiens be considering a change behind the bench? Has Claude Julien peaked with the Habs?
The Montreal Canadiens entered the 2019-20 season under pressure. They haven’t made the previous two postseasons and an eight-game losing streak has them on the verge of sitting at home in April for a third consecutive year. A lot was on the line for a lot of people in the Habs organization. That includes head coach Claude Julien.
Montreal jumped at the chance to re-hire Julien, who initially coached them from 2002 to 2006, after the Boston Bruins fired him in 2017. During his second tenure with the Canadiens, Julien has a 100-87-28 record. They’ve made the Stanley Cup Playoffs once and have missed it twice.
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The Canadiens are a proud franchise. You know how many times in their history they’ve missed the postseason three straight times? Twice. Once in the 1920s and once from 1998-99 to 2000-01. It didn’t even take the Canadiens missing the postseason for a third straight year for them to fire Alain Vigneault and hire Michel Therrien.
Though the Canadiens haven’t won a Stanley Cup since 1993, they’ve won the most Stanley Cups of any franchise. Success isn’t expected in Montreal – it is demanded. That’s why Julien should be concerned.
Why Julien Deserves The Blame
When a team is struggling, there are three possible solutions.
- Hope things change
- Change the roster
- Change the coaching staff
The first option is simply not a realistic one at this point. Can the Habs truly be patient and potentially waste an additional year of the careers of Shea Weber and Carey Price? The former is 34 years old and the latter is 32 years old. Age isn’t kind to players and, as they say, Father Time is undefeated.
While Weber and Price aren’t showing any signs of declining significantly, history tells us when the decline starts, it will not be pretty. Patience is simply illogical for the Canadiens at this point. General Manager Marc Bergevin is under pressure. He will not be patient, nor should he be patient.
Changing the roster is certainly an option. It’s worth mentioning the Canadiens have a ton of cap space. And there are sure to be options aplenty on the trade market. Among them are Taylor Hall, Tyler Toffoli, and Jean-Gabriel Pageau. The Canadiens also have one of the NHL’s deepest and most fascinating prospect pools.
However, the trade market is a bit slow right now. And, as they say, the best teams to trade with are desperate teams. The Canadiens are probably a desperate team at this point. Now, that shouldn’t scare them away from making a move to shake up their roster, but it’s certainly something they should keep in mind.
Julien should be feeling the heat at this point. Yes, the players deserve some of the blame. But ultimately, Julien deserves the most blame. His baffling lineup decisions are hurting the Canadiens. Take, for example, how he’s handled Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
Last season, Julien primarily used him with fellow Finnish forwards Joel Armia and Artturi Lehkonen. In about 400 five-on-five minutes, they were impressive. 15 of his 29 five-on-five points came with them. Kotkaniemi was clearly comfortable playing with them and the trio worked out very well together. This season, it took Julien a while to reunite the trio, as he put Drouin with Kotkaniemi instead of Lehkonen. It shouldn’t be surprising Kotkaniemi has five points in 20 games.
Another example is how he’s used Victor Mete. Mete is nothing special, but he’s always posted strong numbers with Shea Weber. Around Nov. 15, Julien made an interesting switch, putting Ben Charriot with Weber. Now, it’s worth mentioning Charriot has put up very impressive numbers with Weber and they’ve outscored opponents 10-8 at five-on-five.
However, Mete has since been paired with Jeff Petry. The duo has not has too much success, as the Habs have been scored 5-3 since the change on Nov. 15th. While Charriot and Weber have outscored their opponents 8-6 at five-on-five during the same span, it’s worth noting Mete and Weber have outscored opponents 15-7.
The Canadiens have a tough decision to make. Should they fire a head coach over a month when they basically couldn’t score a goal or stop one? Maybe a roster change should happen first? But how much longer can the Canadiens be patient? The time for being patient is over in Montreal. Changes are needed, and they might come behind the bench.