Canadiens announce Claude Julien as new bench boss

The Canadiens officially announced Claude Julien as head coach on Wednesday. Julien, who was fired last week by the Bruins, is back for a second stint in Montreal, which has a 18-18-7 record since a 13-1-1 start to the season.

The Montreal Canadiens officially announced Claude Julien as their new head coach today after hiring him to replace the fired Michel Therrien.

Watch the news conference with general manager Marc Bergevin live now in the video player above.

"We're getting one of the best coaches in the NHL," Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said of Julien at Wednesday's news conference in Brossard, Que.

It's the 13th time Montreal has made a midseason coaching change and it's the first time since the Ottawa Senators in 2008 that a team replaced its coach while leading a division. The 31-19-8 Canadiens entered play Wednesday atop the Atlantic, six points ahead of the Senators, who have four games in hand.

The Canadiens opened the season with a 13-1-1 mark but have been listless over the last two months, going 18-18-7 since and 2-6-1 record in their last nine games.

"We were not playing our game, there was something missing" Bergevin said of the team's recent play. "Yes, we had some injuries but you know how tight the NHL is today. There were signs something was not going right."

Julien, 56, returns for his second stint as Montreal's head coach. He also took over after Therrien was fired for the first time in January 2003. Julien was let go three years later after compiling a 72-62-10-15 record.

After a brief stint with New Jersey, Julien thrived in Boston, taking the Bruins to a Stanley Cup title in 2011 and reaching the final two years later. He was named the NHL's coach of the year in 2009, is the winningest coach in Bruins history with 388 victories and has 997 career NHL regular-season wins.

But Boston missed the playoffs in each of the last two years and Julien was fired last week with the Bruins again struggling for a post-season spot.

Bergevin said Wednesday he didn't base his decision to fire Therrien on Boston parting ways with Julien, who ranks seventh among active NHL coaches with a .603 win percentage.

Under Therrien, Montreal missed the playoffs last year after a hot start, with a serious injury to star goalie Carey Price contributing to the team's collapse.

The Canadiens host Winnipeg on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET.

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