Bring back Michel Therrien

[jackp]

Never should have been fired...

Best coach we've had since Demers...

Just look at his record with the AHL team he's with now.

The guy is a winner and, most importantly, his teams know how to play offense...

- Jack

[Fanpuck33_]

Yep, the Habs sure were an offensive power house when Therrien was around. *sarcasm* Therrien and Julien were both great AHL coaches. In my opinion, neither is much more than that. I wasn't a fan of Therrien, and I'm not a fan of Julien.

But seriously, bringing back a coach they fired, that's just silly. Only the Yankees do that

[Edited on 12-13-05 by Fanpuck33]

[BTH]

Last I checked his record was 20-0-3. Amazing but don't forget that Pittsburgh has a lot of good prospects on that team.

And Michel Therrien was never a good coach. All he did was yell at people. I'm sure Claude does a better job and is more popular with the team.

[JMMR]

Wow that’s amazing.

It makes me wonder what Eddie Olczyk is the coach of the Pens.

I never minded Therrien he was a pretty good coach.

Only thing that upset me was the bench minor he took against the Canes in round 2 other than that he worked hard loved his job and those players seemed to work pretty hard and diligently all night every night.

[Capt.Crunch]

I'm just tired of the good Ol' defensive minset...

Julien recently commented on Gretzky in the "Journal de Montreal" that he was impressed on the emphasis such a player put on backchecking, even on the last legs of his carreer...

Yeah.

I'm sure we will all remember Gretz as an exceptional defensive player... *ahem*

[habzz22]

Julien is probably the only coach since Demers with a win/loss record above .500, he's a sound coach with a system and the players respect him.I wouldn't panic just yet. It's amazing what a losing streak can do to the Psyche of its fans. Unless the Habs lose the next 10 games in a row ,which is unlikely, expect to see Julien stick around for a while.

[jackp]

Originally posted by Bulis_the_Habbie

Last I checked his record was 20-0-3. Amazing but don't forget that Pittsburgh has a lot of good prospects on that team.

And Michel Therrien was never a good coach. All he did was yell at people. I'm sure Claude does a better job and is more popular with the team.

Yeah, that's really important, being more popular with the team...

Therrien didn't have the quality of players that Julien has. More importantly, the team knew how to play offense under him.

Remember our good start this year? We were "running and gunning" but, as a result, we were giving up 3 on 2's and 2 on 1's. I was afraid that this would make Julien emphasize a brain-dead defensive system that doesn't allow as many odd man rushes. Well guess what? We hardly give up any 3 on 2's or 2 on 1's anymore because our guys are always back. Unfortunately, this means that we can't score more than 3 goals a game (tops), and because we don't exert offensive pressure, we spend about 2/3 of the game in our own zone.

This defensive nonsense worked (barely) in the old NHL. It doesn't work at all now because it depended on clutching and grabbing, and interference in front of your own net. These tactics are no longer allowed (as you all know). The old system might have worked when 2 or 3 goals was all you needed to win a game. So you could stress defense and hope for garbage goals to see you through. Not anymore. Balance has returned to the game, and if you don't coach (and play) offense, you don't win. Pure and simple.

It pisses me off to see our team trying to make a system work that is flawed from the onset.

It pisses me off to hear people condemning our players, saying that they aren't trying or aren't intense, when they're trying just as hard as the other team. The problem is that most of the hard work is taking place in our own defensive zone, where, after awhile, cracks have to appear.

We're playing what's essentially a "prevent defense" and as far as I'm concerned, (as the cliche goes) the only thing a prevent defense prevents... is victory.

- Jack

[Capt.Crunch]

I agree completely with Jack.

The best way to make sure you don't get scored now is by placing emphasis on "puck possesion".

Unfortunately, keeping the puck also means "taking chances", holding the blue line in the offensive zone (and "not" having your defense in the neutral zone), flushing the "one man wonder" forecheck, winning faceoffs and promoting players who can make themselves open to passes (you can see that as "offensive positioning").

It means taking chances and slacking a bit on the reactive play.

I'm not seeing that from the team right now.

[BTH]

It's true that we need more offence but being a defensive(/two way) player myself I don't mind defensive systems. Why fire Julien now? All we saw from him is that we won with a full team and lost without it. There's still no evidence that this losing skid is all his fault.

[jackp]

Originally posted by habzz22

Julien is probably the only coach since Demers with a win/loss record above .500, he's a sound coach with a system and the players respect him.I wouldn't panic just yet. It's amazing what a losing streak can do to the Psyche of its fans. Unless the Habs lose the next 10 games in a row ,which is unlikely, expect to see Julien stick around for a while.

I'm not panicking. I've never liked Julien. To me, he's Alain Vigneault all over again. And mark my words, the team will not win under him, especially if they keep calling the rules the way they do now in the "new" NHL.

Actually "despair" would be a better term to how I'm feeling right now. Once they get rid of Julien, we end up with Jarvis, who's basically the same. My only hope (and it's a slim one) is that Julien is flexible enough in his thinking to realize that he has to change and adapt to the new NHL. That he has to start practicing *offense* in his practices. (It was no surprise to me that we got blasted in our first game back after a week of Julien practices. Guess what they were saying they would have to bone up on during the week of practices? Defense!!! And this after stats show that we have one of the worst offenses in the division. And I don't believe it's all down to the loss of Kovalev and Koivu (though that certainly hasn't helped). Our current offensive malaise started a couple of games *before* Kovalev made his startling announcement.

- Jack

[kaos]

THe only problem I have with Julien is that he seems to have a problem getting guys motivated.

THat effort against Anaheim was pathetic, and he can't seem to get some of these guys going... ie., Mike Riberio. 2 years ago he seemed able to straighten Ribeiro out, whats different this year?

No need of Michel Therrien on this club, lest we drop another playoff series after taking the dumbest bench minor in history.

[jackp]

Originally posted by Capt.Crunch

I agree completely with Jack.

The best way to make sure you don't get scored now is by placing emphasis on "puck possesion".

Unfortunately, keeping the puck also means "taking chances", holding the blue line in the offensive zone (and "not" having your defense in the neutral zone), flushing the "one man wonder" forecheck, winning faceoffs and promoting players who can make themselves open to passes (you can see that as "offensive positioning").

It means taking chances and slacking a bit on the reactive play.

I'm not seeing that from the team right now.

Reminds me of a team I once played on in a pretty good industrial league. We finished 2nd during league play, yet got bounced in the 1st round of playoffs. For some unknown reason, our team got "scared" and started to play way too defensive. I can remember pleading with the guys in the dressing room (especially the defencemen) not to give up the offensive zone so quickly. To no avail. You know how it is in those leagues - no coach - so who to hell was going to listen to me?!!

I'm not saying that you abandon defense for offense, but you need to balance the two, and that's not happening on the Habs right now. Besides, as a pesky fan near me used to bellow when I had seasons in the Forum: "Le meilleur defense c'est l'offense." (Pardon my bad French grammar).

- Jack

[jackp]

Originally posted by kaos

No need of Michel Therrien on this club, lest we drop another playoff series after taking the dumbest bench minor in history.

Think of what you're saying. *One* bench minor and you think the coach should be fired (especially a great coach like Therrien). Besides, I suppose that you don't know that the NHL apologized to the Habs that summer for that penalty. They said it shouldn't have been assessed. It was more a case of Kerri Fraser having a Kerri Fraser moment, than anything else. I can remember reading about Koivu saying right after the game that he didn't know why the penalty had been given; that nothing more untoward than what most coaches do under the same situation had occured.

- Jack

[Edited on 2005/12/13 by jackp]

[BTH]

Remind me again: what did Therrien get the minor for? I think I remember that the Habs got a penalty and heargued so they gave us a new penalty and the Canes scored on the 5-on-3. Am I right?

[kaos]

Probably because the Habs have been stuck in a defensive mode for about the past 20 years. Whens the last time this team had a good consistent offensive squad?

All the Burns, Demers,Trembley, Vigneault, Therrien, and Julien years were defensive years, with no spectacular offensive years. Infact the Habs haven't had a 100 point scorer since the Perron years. Its been ingrained in the franchise for so long, that the firewagon hockey mindset seems lost.

[smon]

Therrien? Come on..the guy was passion for sure but it became a detriment to the team..

I think Jarvis is likely going to be the next coach. Gainey's protege. Probably not soon, but who knows in a couple of seasons?

[PMAC]

My first response to this thread is; " you must be joking".

Secondly, I think that you will find that Shock! Surprise! our offensive production will come back once Koivu and Kovalev are back. If you take any team in the league and remove their two best offensive forwards, their offense is going to drop.

People keep comparing us to Buffalo, but the only difference between the two teams is that Biron has risen to the occaision and is carrying the team. They havent been scoring much, but they are giving up less.

Patience folks. Its a long season. The team will be fine...everybody just seems to have really raised their expectations after our hot start.

[Leafs Suck]

Wow, I so called this in the Phoenix game thread. While it's not a player, it's thread 8758435 of someone slagging the Habs for something they did. These people play NHL on there Playstation that is automatically makes them a hockey genius.

[olematelot]

Therrien, wow, what colour is the sky in your world:?-

[olematelot]

Originally posted by Leafs Suck

Wow, I so called this in the Phoenix game thread. While it's not a player, it's thread 8758435 of someone slagging the Habs for something they did. These people play NHL on there Playstation that is automatically makes them a hockey genius.

Doesn't being good at" NHL 2006" automatically make you eligible for coach or GM in the league.

[Leafs Suck]

Some people think so.

Therrien, Hossa, Beaueamin, Garon...

Whats next? Saturday people are gonna be whining that the Habs drafted Komisarek over Mikko Koivu?

[Makh2o]

Originally posted by jackp

I'm not panicking. I've never liked Julien. To me, he's Alain Vigneault all over again. And mark my words, the team will not win under him, especially if they keep calling the rules the way they do now in the "new" NHL.

- Jack

Wow, this is so true...cause Julien has absolutely no track record of winning games...at all....oh wait a second..he did win that Memorial cup. But that's it right? oh no wait, he did coach a Gold medal World Junior team.....but that's all he did ...oh hold on! Didn't he bring the bulldogs to game seven of the finals of the AHL, a league where they were one of the youngest teams?

Yeah, your arguments are definetly carrying a lot of credibility....

[goonhab]

Therrien may be a good coach in the NHL one day but so what if we dumped him. Having a discussion about how great Therrien was (is) is a joke, right? I rate him very low amount coaches. There are a lot of good coach in the NHL.

Bringing Terrien back would be like dating an old girlfriend - you fergot why you dumped her in the first place.

[PurpleHills]

Ok, do any of us see on a regular basis, what the coach does off the ice??? Probably not, so then how can we jugde who the good and bad coaches are. If you tell me that he isn't playing his youngsters enough, you may have a point because it's an apparent coaching move. But if you tell me Julien doesn't know how to motivate his players, or that Julien doens't run the right drills, that's bogus. You would have to be a witness, or your opinion doesn't count. One person who is a witness, is Bob Gainey. He's a lot more hockey smart than any of us. Leave it to the man

[jackp]

Originally posted by PurpleHills

Ok, do any of us see on a regular basis, what the coach does off the ice??? Probably not, so then how can we jugde who the good and bad coaches are. If you tell me that he isn't playing his youngsters enough, you may have a point because it's an apparent coaching move. But if you tell me Julien doesn't know how to motivate his players, or that Julien doens't run the right drills, that's bogus. You would have to be a witness, or your opinion doesn't count. One person who is a witness, is Bob Gainey. He's a lot more hockey smart than any of us. Leave it to the man

First of all, to those of you who were translating my "bring back Therrien" post literally, you need to expand the depth of your thinking. This was not a serious suggestion; it was a lead-in to my rant about lack of offense. (Most of you did realize this, I believe.) To put it even more bluntly... I am very well aware that we will never have this excellent coach again {sigh}.

As to those who believe that Julien is a good coach, yada, yada, yada... There's no point arguing this here. Let's wait and see. We'll talk again next April. I just hope that you don't forget this thread we had here back in mid December.

I'll say one thing though... Therrien has accomplished as much as Julien has in the minors and more. Besides this, after the 1st round upset of Boston, we were up 2 games in the next series against the Canes before we had that meltdown. Our team then looked like we could beat anyone! Whereas, Julien (like Vigneault), won 1 series, and then was swept 4 straight where we didn't even look like we belonged. And don't forget, talent-wise, Julien has a better team than Therrien had.

The following year, Therrien was quoted as saying that his goal was the Stanley Cup and nothing less. Have you ever heard Julien or Vigneault say this? God forbid. We wouldn't want to have unreal expectations now, would we...

- Jack

[Edited on 2005/12/14 by jackp]