Canadiens recall Cole Caufield to the taxi squad, Primeau to active roster, He likely won’t make his NHL debut tonight, but this move means it should be coming soon, Part IV — Jean Perron joins the group, and the rest is history, Canadiens vs. MacNeil would watch the games from the stands and provide feedback to Ruel, who continued to manage the bench by himself during games. Last Sunday, Burns and I faced off against Larry Robinson and Rick Green.”, Would he ever had wanted to be a head coach? That’s my reward.”. And who was the first assistant coach to go behind the bench? All-time Points Leader: Guy Lafleur, 1246. “This past season I accepted the job almost half-way through the season. In the span of six seasons, the Montreal Canadiens went from Claude Ruel’s precarious grasp of power to a team of coaches that included two assistant coaches and a goaltending coach, allowing the Canadiens to catch up to the rest of the league who was using the multiple coach model for years. It is quite a standard practice in the modern NHL to have numerous coaches. Senators game recap: ‘We’re all in this together, and we’ll get out of it together’, Jake Allen led the Canadiens to victory with a little help from his friends. Former right-hand man of Michel Bergeron with the Quebec Nordiques, Charles Thiffault, was hired by the Canadiens on a two-year contract to focus solely on repairing the team’s woeful power play, which was dead last in the NHL the previous season. These legendary coaches managed the forwards, the defencemen, the special teams, and all things in between all by themselves by wielding a tight grip of power. Most Goals, Season: Steve Shutt (1976-77), Guy Lafleur (1977-78), 60 He was assistant coach with the Montreal Canadiens from 1997 to 1999 and then became the first coach of the expansion Columbus Blue Jackets in their inaugural 2000–01 season until his firing on January 7, 2003, in the middle of the 2002–03 season. However the experiment was short-lived, as within three months of the nomination, Ruel quit the head-coaching post and left MacNeil to pick up the pieces mid-season. We know each other very well, so it will be easy to communicate. Links: Tyler Toffoli is crucial to Canadiens’ success. Hockey operations personnel. More often than not he was Director of Player Development (1975-1980, 1981-1995), taking great pride in making sure that the young prospects in the organization developed into permanent members of the Montreal Canadiens. The story begins with one person: Claude Ruel. Scotty Bowman couldn’t win as coach with a goalie who has a 3.13 goals-against average and a .888 save percentage. “Before hiring another assistant, I want to get to know all the personnel already in place. “Had the chance to play with Dom for two years,” St. Louis tweeted after Ducharme was hired. The Canadiens also promoted Alex Burrows to assistant coach. Laperrière lived the creation and the evolution of the assistant coach role on the Canadiens. Ducharme was considered a candidate for the AHL position before being announced as an assistant coach with the Habs. It’s another game versus a hard-working team on Saturday afternoon. It’s another game versus a hard-working team on Saturday afternoon. We can’t be all so bad since there are former Montreal Canadiens coaching all over the NHL. None of them had any previous experience in their roles. “I gave Mr. Grundman honest and sincere conditions,” said Ruel to La Presse. Video Coach. When Burns was fired and Jacques Demers was hired to replace him as head coach for the 1992-93 season, Thiffault and Laperrière remained, as did goaltending coach Francois Allaire. If Lemaire changed the way players warmed up before a game, and Perron added flexibility and stretching to practices, then Thiffault pioneered tactical training and preparing game plans specific to an opponent. You would have to fast forward to the 1990-91 season for the Canadiens to once again have a second assistant coach, this time under head coach Pat Burns during his third season behind the Habs bench. Réjean Houle was named the new General Manager, Mario Tremblay the new head coach, and Canadiens’ legend Yvan Cournoyer the new assistant coach. The Canadiens dropped assistant coaches Jean-Jacques Daigneault and Dan Lacroix and hired Ducharme away from the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on … Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. “Other teams have already begun using this system. It was two years into Ruel’s first stint as head coach that he brought on Montreal Voyageurs head coach Al MacNeil to serve as the first ever assistant coach in Canadiens history. Ruel, knowing Bowman for many years, served as his assistant, a role he was much more comfortable with, returning to the formula of head coach and assistant coach. Team Name: Montreal Canadiens Seasons: 103 (1917-18 to 2020-21) NHL Playoff Appearances: 84 NHL Championships: 25 (23 Stanley Cups) Playoff Record: 427-312 Record (W-L-T-OTL): 3466-2293-837-173 (7942 points) All-time Goals Leader: Maurice Richard, 544. Canadiens vs. MacNeil would also vacate the position at the conclusion of the season — not before winning the Stanley Cup — and return to Nova Scotia to coach the Canadiens’ farm team away from the spotlight and the language divide of Montreal. This series will explore this question. Luke Richardson remains with the club as an assistant coach, as does goaltending coach Stephane Waite. SEPTEMBER 14, 2018 -- New Montreal Canadiens assistant coach Dominique Ducharme speaks to players during training camp practice at the Bell Sports Complex in … The media were confused, fans were concerned, and people wanted to know whether it was setting up an eventual handover. This is my coaching philosophy and it’s the way I have always worked in hockey,” explained Perron on his decision. After a listless loss against Ottawa, the Canadiens are focused on their Western road trip. The former in place for a mere four seasons, while the latter reigned as consigliere for 17 seasons for seven head coaches. This is the relevant tranche of his career for this story. ... canadiens.com is the official Web site of the Montreal Canadiens. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. Alex Burrows has also joined the coaching staff. Although there were many after him, he will forever be considered the pioneer of the role, earning stints with Boston and the New York Islanders, before settling in with the New Jersey Devils where he was an assistant for yet another former boss, Jacques Lemaire. Montreal forfeits one of its games in hand on the Flames. With staggering longevity. I prefer to teach. It was two years into Ruel’s first stint as head coach that he brought on Montreal Voyageurs head coach Al MacNeil to serve as the first ever assistant coach in Canadiens history. Ruel was the man of many faces and a loyal soldier for the Montreal Canadiens organization, going wherever he was needed and taking on whatever role was asked of him. Ducharme, 47, is being promoted to the interim head coaching position after two seasons as an assistant coach with the Club. We saw this when Claude Julien was still head coach of the Montreal Canadiens that the Kulak-Mete defence partnering was a complete flop. The first time he coached — in 1968 — Ruel had the unenviable task of replacing the legendary Blake who had freshly retired and moved into an executive role within the organization. “The job of a head coach in the NHL is more and more sophisticated and requires more time,” explained Burns. “It’s an innovation as far as we’re concerned,” said Managing Director Pollock reassuringly at the time. Although he had the support and counsel of Ruel and Blake to work with, Geoffrion couldn’t stand the pressure of coaching in Montreal and left 30 games in. Assistant General Manager: Scott Mellanby: Assistant General Manager: Trevor Timmins: Director of Player Personel: Martin Lapointe: Director of Player Development: Rob Ramage: Player Development Coach: Francis Bouillon: General Manager, Laval Rocket: Marc Bergevin: Head Coach… During this time, Montreal failed to make the playoffs twice and lost in the first round the other two years. Montreal isn’t likely to go for another team’s castoff. Links: Tyler Toffoli is crucial to Canadiens’ success. Alex Burrows is back in the NHL. On April 27, 2018, the Canadiens hired Ducharme as an assistant coach. Four games into the season Demers, Thiffault, and General Manager Serge Savard were re-assigned or fired in a massive, poorly-timed, hockey operations reboot. Often at odds, Armia’s size and skill combined for a great performance. The wave of former NHL players being lured by the Montreal Canadiens continued Friday with the addition of Gerard Gallant as assistant coach. Pittsburgh Penguins’ qualifying-round loss to Montreal Canadiens cost assistant coaches Sergei Gonchar, Jacques Martin and Mark Recchi their jobs. So bad was the situation around Cournoyer, that he began doing scouting trips over coaching less than a year into his nomination. The Canadiens dropped assistant coaches Jean-Jacques Daigneault and Dan Lacroix and hired Ducharme away from the Drummondville Voltigeurs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Friday. 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