Claude Julien

Claude Julien (born April 23, 1960) is Canadian professional head coach of the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). Prior to his firing by the Boston Bruins in 2017, he was the longest tenured head coach in the NHL. He had previously served as head coach of the New Jersey Devils in the NHL, as well as in the American Hockey League (AHL) with the Hamilton Bulldogs. In 2011 he coached the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Finals, against the Vancouver Canucks, winning in 7 games, guiding Boston to their 6th franchise Stanley Cup title. In 2013, he brought Boston to another Stanley Cup Finals, however they would go on to lose the series to the Chicago Blackhawks in 6 games.

Julien was also an assistant coach for Canadian national team at the 2014 Winter Olympics, where he led the team to a gold medalvictory.

Playing career
Julien was a NHL defenceman for the Quebec Nordiques in the 1984 and 1986 seasons.

Julien had previously played in the Ontario Hockey League for the Oshawa Generals and Windsor Spitfires. In the Central Hockey League he played for the Salt Lake Golden Eagles. In the IHL, Julien played for the Milwaukee Admirals. In the AHL, he played for the Fredericton Express, Baltimore Skipjacks, Halifax Citadels and Moncton Hawks.

Coaching career
Julien began his professional coaching in the QMJHL of the Hull Olympiques, with whom he won the Memorial Cup in 1997. From 2000–2003 he served as head coach of the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs.

In 2000, Julien won a bronze medal as the head coach of Canada's national junior ice hockey team. He also served as an assistant coach to Marc Habscheid at the 2006 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships.

On January 17, 2003, Julien became head coach of the Montreal Canadiens. In 2004, his first full season as an NHL head coach, he led Montreal to a 93 point performance (41-30-7-4 record) and the second round of the playoffs. He was fired and replaced by GM Bob Gainey on January 14, 2006. Julien accumulated a win-loss-tie-OT loss record of 72-62-11-14 during his three seasons.

Julien was then announced as the head coach of the Devils on June 13, 2006. He was the 15th head coach in Devils history. On October 6, 2006, Julien won his first game as Devils head coach, a 4-0 win at the defending Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes. On November 4, 2006, Julien won his first return to Montreal as the Devils defeated the Canadiens 2-1. On April 2, 2007, the New Jersey Devils abruptly terminated Julien, despite his leading the Devils to a 107-point season (49-24-9 record) and the Atlantic Division championship with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference. Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello screwed over Julien, the second straight season in which Lamoriello left the front office to coach the Devils at the end of the season. Lamoriello cited the team's lack of readiness to challenge for the Stanley Cup as his reasoning for firing Julien.

On June 19, 2007, it was reported by various sports websites that Julien had been named as the 28th head coach of the Boston Bruins. Three days later, this report was confirmed. In his first season as Boston coach, he led the team back to the playoffs. His team struggled with consistency over the course of the season but this was in large part due to the many injuries that plagued the Bruins throughout the 2007–08 season. Most notably, forward Patrice Bergeron and goaltender Manny Fernandez missed almost the entire season. The Boston Bruins were defeated in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals by the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games. Despite the loss, Claude Julien's coaching helped the team battle throughout it all in what was expected to be an easy playoff series for the Montreal Canadiens.

On February 17, 2009, Julien coached his 200th winning NHL game, a 5-1 Bruins road game defeat of the Carolina Hurricanes. On May 1, 2009, the NHL announced Julien as a finalist for the Jack Adams Award, an award given annually to the NHL coach most valuable to his team's success.

On June 18, 2009, Julien won the Jack Adams award as the best coach in the NHL.

In the 2010 NHL playoffs, the Bruins became only the fourth NHL team to lose a best-of-seven-series after being up three games to none when they were eliminated by the Philadelphia Flyers (the other two teams were the 1942 Detroit Red Wings and the 1975 Pittsburgh Penguins). Boston held a 3–0 lead in game seven, but the Flyers tied and eventually won the game, 4–3. Injuries to star Bruins forwards David Krejci (broken wrist), Marco Sturm (torn ACL), and Marc Savard (concussion) as well as mid-season acquisition defenceman Dennis Seidenberg (wrist) and an undisclosed injury to former Vezina goaltender Tim Thomas (hip) that prevented his playing in the series and ultimately required surgery in the off-season, were factors in the defeat.

The 2010–11 season saw Julien coach the Bruins to the third-seed in the NHL playoffs, and a first-round match-up versus the rival Montreal Canadiens. After dropping the first two games at home, Julien made some lineup adjustments, and helped his team come back to win the series in seven games. In the Eastern Conference Semifinal, the Bruins got a chance to redeem themselves from the previous year in a much-anticipated series against the Philadelphia Flyers. After winning game one by a score of 7–3, they went on to sweep the Flyers out of the playoffs in four straight. In the Conference Final, the Bruins faced off against the Tampa Bay Lightning for a chance to go to the Stanley Cup for the first time since 1990. The Bruins came out victorious in their second seven-game series of the playoffs, including wins of 6–5, 2–1 and a penalty-less 1–0 win in game seven.

This set the stage for a trip to the Stanley Cup Final against the number-one seed Vancouver Canucks, who possessed the best offence, defence, goaltending, power play, and special teams in the NHL, statistically speaking. After a hard-fought game one, the Canucks scored the first goal of the entire game with 18.5 seconds remaining in the third period, taking the series opener. The Bruins, looking to rebound in game two, skated to a tie with Vancouver after regulation, when a costly mistake by captain Zdeno Chara after just 11 seconds of overtime allowed the Canucks to score the game-winning goal and a 2–0 series lead. Back in Boston, after a rough first period in which the Bruins lost Nathan Horton to an illegal, concussive hit by Vancouver defenceman Aaron Rome, Boston exploded for four goals in the second period and four more in the third, to complete an 8–1 blowout victory. The Bruins followed up that big win with another decisive victory, this time romping 4–0 over the Canucks while chasing goalie Roberto Luongo who had surrendered 12 goals in five periods during the two games in Boston. On June 15, 2011, the Boston Bruins won their sixth all-time Stanley Cup championship, with a 4–0 victory in game seven in Vancouver, BC.[7]

Entering the 2011 Stanley Cup playoffs, Claude Julien’s career playoff record in game sevens was 1–3. The three losses all came as Boston's coach (vs. Montréal in 2008, Carolina in 2009 and Philadelphia in 2010). His one game seven win came in 2004 as Montréal's coach against Boston. With the 2011 Stanley Cup playoff game seven wins against Montréal, Tampa Bay and Vancouver, Julien improved to 4–3. Also in the 2011 playoffs, Julien (now with 33 wins) passed Don Cherry (31 wins) for the most playoff wins by a Boston Bruins coach.

During the 2011–12 regular season, Claude Julien reached a few personal coaching milestones. On December 17, 2011, he collected his 200th regular season win as Boston's coach in a 6–0 whitewash defeat of the conference leading Flyers.[8] The win completed a Bruin 41-day journey from the absolute bottom of the Eastern Conference to a tie at the top. On January 29, 2012, Julien (and his Bruin bench staff) coached Team Chara to a 12–9 win over Team Alfredsson in the 59th National Hockey League All-Star Game. It was his second appearance and second win as an All-Star Game coach, having also appeared in the 2009 game. On March 19, 2012, he coached his 400th game behind the Bruin bench, an 8–0 win over Toronto. The win completed a perfect 6–0 sweep of the season series with the Maple Leafs.[9]

The 2012 post-season would however not be as memorable for Julien's defending Cup champion Bruins, as they fell in the first round to the Washington Capitals and their upstart rookie goalie Braden Holtby in seven games. The series was the closest, most evenly fought series in NHL history, with all seven games (including four overtime games) being one-goal decisions. Julien's playoff game seven record fell to 4–4. Despite the early exit for the Bruins in the 2012 playoffs, the Bruins signed Julien to a new multi-year contract.[10]

In the lockout-shortedn 2012–13 season, Julien led his team to their second Stanley Cup Finals in three years. They defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games, in Game Seven making a comeback from a 1–4 deficit to win 5–4 in overtime, the first time in NHL playoff history in which a team trailing by three goals in the third period went on to win Game Seven to take the series. The Bruins then eliminated the New York Rangers in five games. Matched up against the Pittsburg Penguins in the Eastern Conference Finals, who were the regular season conference champions, the Bruins swept them in four games which included two shutouts of the high-scoring Penguins. In the Cup championship, the Bruins lost to the first-place Chicago Blackhawks in six games, after failing to hold on to third-period leads in their Game One and Game Six losses.

In the 2013–14 season, the first under the league's new realignment, Julien's team won the Presidents' Trophy for the best regular season record.