The Claude Julien Thread - The “Tabarnacle” edition.

[Sand94]

So it’s been about an entire year since Claude Julien was hired and so I think it’s a fair time to properly evaluate him.

I want to keep this fairly short and to the point. I am more than aware that our team is horrible, and near the bottom of the standings, but I think Claude has actually done a pretty good job as far as player development.

I want to focus on Galchenyuk because it seems like Therrien never was able to get the best out of him and he’s only the second coach to ever get his hands on Chucky. This year we’ve seen a more motivated and defensively responsible chuck. He’s improving leaps and bounds every month.

But it’s not just him, Gallagher has also found a new gear to his game. Hudon, while a very good player is finally coming into his own.

Julien is giving our rookies the most amount of opportunity to our young guys that I’ve ever seen in a long time. He uses his players to their strengths and doesn’t shy away from using his young talent if the situation is needed.
He’s handled the media very well in such a bad season and has never talked bad about a particular player. I think the young guys respect him a lot.

I’m excited to see how he can mold our future talent into excellent two way players.

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[ahmedou]

The Challenger Coach Of The Year

 

[the]

Very shrewd move by Claude, he’s been great this season.

 

[26Mats]

Overall great job.

But how the heck did it take him so long to put Kotkaniemi on the right halfwall this year (and Galchenyuk there last year.)

And how much longer until he finally puts Drouin and Gallagher with KK??? It just takes him too long sometimes.

 

[TRG]

Holy thread revival.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

Very shrewd move by Claude, he’s been great this season.

Plus he makes great gifs!

 

[nhlfan9191]

The Challenger Coach Of The Year

It’s essentially a most improved team award. So I’d say he has a good chance of winning it.

 

[CauZuki]

Plus he makes great gifs!

Don't know what you are talking about...

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Atta boy Claude!

 

[scrubadam]

Heard them say on the boradcast Habs were one of the top teams in hits ???

A little bit of that CJ big bad Bruins rubbing off on the habs? Sure its not like the old days but the habs low key lay the body.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

Don't know what you are talking about...

I love them.

 

[Habaneros]

Very shrewd move by Claude, he’s been great this season.

Dominic Ducharmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee ....

 

[Kudo Shinichi]

Great coach
The biggest issue there was with Julien is that his system was too defensive, but he did a completely 180 this year which is not easy to do for a coach who won a cup and had a lot of success playing that defensive system.

 

[ECWHSWI]

didnt see him cry at the ref once vs the Yotes, good job Clode!

 

[Kotkaniemi15]

It’s nice to have a good coach behind the bench instead of clowns like Therrien.

 

[Tuggy]

Midseason awards I'd say he'd be top 3 for Jack Adams. Him, Trotz and Peters.

The team has definitely bought into his system and plays hard pretty much every night.

 

[OldCraig71]

Great coach
The biggest issue there was with Julien is that his system was too defensive, but he did a completely 180 this year which is not easy to do for a coach who won a cup and had a lot of success playing that defensive system.

He does also have some new fresh voices behind that bench with him and that certainly must help, Ducharme and Richardson are both very respected hockey minds.

 

[Scriptor]

didnt see him cry at the ref once vs the Yotes, good job Clode!

Pretty sure he would have bawled his eyes out if the challenge had been refused.

 

[Scriptor]

He does also have some new fresh voices behind that bench with him and that certainly must help, Ducharme and Richardson are both very respected hockey minds.

Absolutely. I think a lot of credit for the new approach needs to go to those guys. Pretty sure Bergevin explained to Julien that things needed to change and the writing was on the wall that Bergevin would make another coaching change in an attempt to save his hide before he was shown the door if things didn't change.

Where Julien deserves credit is in getting on board with this and, especially, not reverting to a default anti-hockey game plan in the face of adversity.

However, MON hasn't gone on a 10-game losing streak to really test this.

 

[Saundies]

Julien has our band of misfits playing like a team. Yeah, they don't knock your socks off talent wise but they compete hard mostly every game and seem to actually enjoy each other's company.

I'm not a huge fan of us always hiring retreads, but Claude's been good. Can't really fault him for last year too much, and kudos to him for changing his philosophy on some things.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Great job by Julien & his staff, probably getting the most they can out of a middling roster

Best coach we've had since Alf.

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

I was hard on Julien last year, but aside from his love of players like Agostino/Chaput he's done a fantastic job this year. He's done a great job of surrounding himself with quality assistants which has been a huge help.

 

[scrubadam]

I was hard on Julien last year, but aside from his love of players like Agostino/Chaput he's done a fantastic job this year. He's done a great job of surrounding himself with quality assistants which has been a huge help.

Agostino has earned his love, great 4th liner. And Chaput is meh but is a decent 4th liner. Its not like there is really that much better out there.

The only thing I will say is Agostino is not a PP player. Don't know if thats him or Kirk and I get the roster doesn't give many options but ya not a guy you should have on your PP.

 

[Rapala]

The best moves so far can be found in the players who are no longer here particularly on D.

 

[BLONG7]

He does also have some new fresh voices behind that bench with him and that certainly must help, Ducharme and Richardson are both very respected hockey minds.

This is huge........he inherited the group that were assembled by MT and as we know, that was not a pretty crew.

CJ in my mind, still does some mind boggling stuff...when we win everyone is fist bumping, but when we lose, it seems Clod is gonna Clod.