Marc Bergevin confirmed Claude Julien will be back for the 2020-21 season as the head coach fo the Montreal Canadiens, but that might be his final ticket.
The last time Claude Julien got the Montreal Canadiens into the playoffs as the head coach for a full season was 2004. That season saw the Habs lean on the likes of Mike Ribeiro, Michael Ryder Saku Koivu and Jose Theodore in net lead the team to a seventh seed in the Eastern Conference. The Canadiens bounced back from a 3-1 series deficit winning three in a row and ending things in 2-0 Game 7 victory.
That was 16 years ago. Julien returned for another run with the Habs halfway through the 2016-17 season when they first in the Atlantic Division and already on their way to a playoff berth. There hasn’t been anything positive since then, save for some stellar individual performances from members of the team.
The 2019-20 season will make it three years without playoff hockey in Montreal, and many thought this year would be it for Julien. That was until Marc Bergevin gave the head coach a vote of confidence confirming he will be back for the 2020-21 season.
This, however, is justified (to an extent).
The Montreal Canadiens were a top generating team when it came to scoring chances for this season. What they struggled with a lot of the time was putting the puck into the net (stop me if this sounds familiar). Even though the Habs lost, they worked hard and rarely let the opposition walk all over them.
Defensive breakdowns in favour of putting up points would cost them games and see the team lose their structure. All of that put together is the perfect combination for a regular-season disaster, and that’s not to mention the injuries.
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We can’t relieve Julien completely for the man-games lost this year as other teams were hurt just as bad or even worse. That said, the head coach’s job is to get the team to win, and when they aren’t winning, it’s the easiest position to take a run at.
One could argue Marc Bergevin should get a lot more heat for the lack of competitive hockey played over the years, but that’s an argument for a different time.
Claude Julien gets another season, and in my opinion, he’ll be the one head coach walking on a ridiculously thin sheet of ice. Regardless of the reason. The Montreal Canadiens could be just as injured or be riddled with poor luck. If that team does not make the playoffs, Claude Julien is done.
TVA Sports put out a post on four head coaches who were in danger of losing their jobs, and sure enough, Julien was one of them. It would be different if the Habs took a year or two to rebuild, or retool in Bergevin speak, and lose games on purpose to secure a top-five draft pick while moving on from pending UFAs for future assets.
The willingness of Bergevin to deem the Habs a competitive team has put even more pressure on them year after year. It makes the seasons without the playoffs a harder pill to swallow as the mindset was to get there while circumstances continue to make it impossible.
And again, we have the general manager telling fans and media that the plan is to be competitive next year. Bergevin didn’t want to trade Tomas Tatar or Jeff Petry ahead of the Trade Deadline, despite the delicious prices out there, because he wanted the team to be competitive next season. If that’s the case, the Montreal Canadiens should have an interesting offseason ahead of them.
Each of these decisions will push or pull Claude Julien to either end of the extreme. It wouldn’t even be surprising to see Bergevin part ways with the coach in November if the season doesn’t go as planned. By that point, there would be enough hockey left to salvage the year (assuming coaching is the problem).
Julien does have a tendency to make some interesting decisions, especially when it comes to dealing with young players, but I don’t believe it’s solely on him. However, coaching is the quickest thing to change. The 2019-20 season saw a lot of coaches change teams, and 2020-21 will likely have the same flavour. Whether it’s fair or not, the play of the Montreal Canadien will determine how much longer Julien is behind the bench.