Claude Julien

Claude Julien (born April 23, 1960) is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player.

He most recently served as the head coach of the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL).

As a youth, Julien played in the 1972 and 1973 Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournaments with a minor ice hockey team from Gloucester, Ontario.

Julien was an NHL defenceman for the Quebec Nordiques in the 1984–85 and 1985–86 seasons.

Prior to playing in the NHL, Julien spent six years in the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) with the Oshawa Generals and Windsor Spitfires.

Additionally, he has also played in the Central Hockey League (CHL) for the Salt Lake Golden Eagles; in the International Hockey League (IHL) for the Kansas City Blades and the Milwaukee Admirals; and in the AHL for the Fredericton Express, Baltimore Skipjacks, Halifax Citadels and Moncton Hawks.

Julien began his professional coaching career in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) for the Hull Olympiques, with whom he won the Memorial Cup in 1997.

From 2000 to 2003, he served as head coach for the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs, the top minor league affiliate of the NHL's Montreal Canadiens.

In 2000, Julien won a bronze medal as the head coach of Canadian junior team.

On January 17, 2003, Julien became head coach of the Montreal Canadiens.

In 2003–04, 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 2004 Stanley Cup playoffs.

He also served as an assistant coach to Marc Habscheid at the 2006 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships.

He was eventually fired and replaced by General Manager Bob Gainey on January 14, 2006.

Julien accumulated a record of 72–62–10–15 during his three seasons with the Canadiens.

Julien was then announced as the head coach of the New Jersey Devils on June 13, 2006, becoming the 15th head coach in Devils history.

On October 6, 2006, he won his first game as Devils head coach with a 4–0 win against the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Carolina Hurricanes.

On November 4, Julien won in his first return to Montreal as the Devils defeated the Canadiens, 2–1.

On April 2, 2007, Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello abruptly fired Julien with three games to go in the season.

This was despite the Devils having a 47–24–8 record, which at the time was leading the Atlantic Division and tied for the second-best record in the Eastern Conference.

They were also on their way to setting a franchise record for wins in a season.

Lamoriello said that despite the team's stellar record, he did not feel Julien had it ready for the 2007 playoffs.

Lamoriello named himself interim head coach for the rest of the season, the second straight season in which Lamoriello left the front office to coach the Devils at the end of the season.

Despite the change, the Devils went on to lose in the Eastern Conference Semifinal to the Ottawa Senators.

On June 22, 2007, it was confirmed by various sports websites that Julien had been named as the 28th head coach of the Boston Bruins.

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 Bruins were defeated in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals by his former team, Montreal, who were coached by Guy Carbonneau, Julien's permanent replacement as head coach, in seven games.

On February 17, 2009, Julien coached his 200th win as an NHL head coach, a 5–1 Bruins road game victory over the Carolina Hurricanes.

On June 18, 2009, at the end of the 2008–09 season, he was awarded the Jack Adams Award as coach of the year.

In the 2010 playoffs, the Bruins became only the third 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 Krejčí (broken wrist), Marco Sturm (torn ACL) and Marc Savard (concussion), as well as defenceman Dennis Seidenberg (wrist) and an undisclosed injury to former Vezina-winning goaltender Tim Thomas (hip), were factors in the defeat.

The 2010–11 season saw Julien coach the Bruins to the third-seed in the playoffs and a first round matchup against 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 2011 he coached the Bruins to the Stanley Cup Finals, against the Vancouver Canucks, winning in 7 games, guiding Boston to their sixth franchise Stanley Cup title.

In 2013, he brought Boston to another Stanley Cup Finals, however they lost the series to the Chicago Blackhawks in six games.

Julien has also served as assistant and head coach of the Canadian National Team.

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.