The Montreal Canadiens are better this season for several reasons, and it’s no surprise Claude Julie is being recognized as one of the important ones.
The Jack Adams is one of the many awards handed out in the offseason down in Las Vegas Nevada. Its true meaning has it go to the coach that contributed the most to their team’s success. However, there’s a deeper meaning that goes as the following: your team was expected to be bad, and it’s not. Both meanings apply to several teams this season, including the Montreal Canadiens and Claude Julien.
Coming off a poor year where everything went wrong, the overwhelming consensus was that the Habs would run into the same hardships for the 2018/19 campaign. The biggest criticism fell at the hands of their ability to score goals and having to rely too heavily on Carey Price.
The team does find themselves relying on Price, but their goal production at even strength is incredible, and it comes off their revamped playing style focusing greatly on speed in every aspect of the game. The only area we don’t see much speed is on the powerplay, and it’ll take a jump through mental hurdles to overcome some of the issues there.
Julien has done an incredible job with the Montreal Canadiens this year, and it’s no surprise he’s getting consideration for the Jack Adams award. Not only has he contributed to the team’s ability to play better and win games, but Montreal was expected to be bad, and they are obviously not.
The Montreal Canadiens have 75 points through 64 games with a 34-23-7 record. They’re in a tight spot given how close some other times are though there is no denying the Habs are a good team.
NHL.com did their quarterly look at who is in the running for the Jack Adams, and they had Julien fourth behind Jon Cooper of the Tampa Bay Lightning. It’ll be hard to knock the first two coaches in Barry Trotz and Bill Peters, however, surpassing Cooper may be possible if the Habs can lock down a playoff spot.
That’s not to take away from what Cooper has done with the Lightning. He does have the league’s most skilled roster at his disposal which could swing things in Julien’s favour.
Whether he ends up being nominated or not, I think it’s still important to recognize the work Julien has done. Missing out of the playoffs would sting, but the Montreal Canadiens had a good platform going for the most part.
It’ll be interesting to see how things play out as the season continues.
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