Montreal Canadiens: Looking Back at Michel Therrien’s Second Stint With Habs

The Montreal Canadiens are facing familiar foes in this playoff series. Let’s look back at Michel Therrien’s time in Montreal.

The Montreal Canadiens have had a number of exceptional men behind the bench of their team over the years. Toe Blake won eight Stanley Cups in 13 seasons. Scotty Bowman guided them to a 60 win season in an 80 game schedule and four consecutive Stanley Cups in the 1970’s.

Pat Burns won a Jack Adams Award while leading the Canadiens to a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 1989. Surprisingly, Burns in 1989 and Bowman in 1977 were the only two coaches to win the coach of the year award while behind the Habs bench.

Still, there have been many great people calling the shots for the Habs. There have also been some not so successful attempts to be the team’s bench boss. Mario Tremblay quickly comes to mind. His team’s won 71 of 159 games with him at the helm and though he was only in town for two seasons, he chased Patrick Roy from town. The legendary Habs goaltender demanded a trade after mistreatment from Tremblay.

Somewhere in between Toe Blake and Mario Tremblay is where current head coach Claude Julien rests. This is his second tour of duty behind the Habs bench, though he is currently home after being hospitalized with chest tightness. In his absence, Kirk Muller has taken over against a couple of familiar foes who are on the Philadelphia Flyers bench.

The Flyers head coach is Alain Vigneault who was just a young fella when he coached the Habs from 1997-2001. He had some decent seasons but the roster was a mess thanks to Tremblay and general manager Rejean Houle shipping every quality veteran out of town for little return.