Coaching Profiles: Claude Julien Has Defensive-Minded Approach, Winning History

Today, we take a look at Stanley Cup champion Claude Julien.

A head coach for 19 NHL seasons from 2002-03 through 2020-21, Julien has been behind the bench for three different NHL clubs during his career.

Starting out as a coach with the Montreal Canadiens (2002-06), he also coached the New Jersey Devils (2006-07) before general manager Lou Lamoriello abruptly fired Julien ahead of the Devils’ playoff run despite guiding New Jersey to first place in the division with 102 points and being tied for the second most points in the Eastern Conference.

This led Julien to his best coaching success with the Boston Bruins (2007-17) where he won the Stanley Cup in 2011 and is the winningest head coach in Bruins history. Following his dismissal during the 2016-17 season, he wound up back where it started with the Canadiens (2017-21). He was fired after a 9-5-4 start in 2020-21, the year the Canadiens lost the Stanley Cup Final to the Tampa Bay Lightning during the shortened 56-game season.

The 2011 Cup win sure had to be satisfying as it came one year following Julien's 2010 Bruins becoming the third team at the time to blow a 3-0 playoff series lead. His 2013 Bruins fell in seven games to the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2013 Stanley Cup Final.

Julien's hire at the time broke a string of turnover at the position, with 14 different head coaches employed by the Bruins between 1984-85 and 2006-07, and not one of them lasting at least four seasons except for Gerry Cheevers (1980-85). When Julien was fired from Boston, he had been the longest-tenured head coach in the league at the time. 

Overall, the accolades are impressive, if not outright Hall of Fame worthy.

Julien has compiled an overall NHL ledger of in 1,274 games. He's 19th all-time in games coached, 16th in wins, and he won the Jack Adams Award in 2008-09.

While he hasn’t coached in the NHL for a few years, Julien has stayed busy. 

The veteran coach has served in an advisory role for HC Ambri Piotta of the National League in Switzerland for parts of the 2022-23 season, and he’ll be coaching Team Canada for the upcoming IIHF World Hockey Championship in Finland in May. Julien also served behind the bench for Team Canada during the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where Canada failed to medal after falling to Sweden in the quarterfinals.

The 63-year-old Julien celebrated his birthday this past Sunday.

Claude Julien, NHL.records.com

The Athletic's Aaron Portzline said on the Front & Nationwide podcast from Apr. 17 that Columbus has the feel of a place that needs a veteran coach behind the bench including names like Julien and Peter Laviolette. Coby Maeir wrote about Laviolette last week.

Like Laviolette, Julien certainly checks a lot of boxes that the Blue Jackets would have an interest in.

When assessing Julien's career, particularly with the Bruins who had missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons prior to his taking over, Julien helped the Bruins start a streak of seven straight playoff appearances, winning the Cup in 2011, getting back to the Finals in 2013, winning the Presidents' Trophy in 2014, and he never had a losing record during his stint in Boston.

Throughout his tenure in Boston between 2007-08 and part of 2016-17, Julien's Bruins were fifth in the NHL over that span in points, wins, goals for per game, first in goals allowed per game, eighth on the power play, and fifth on the penalty kill. When Julien was fired in 2016-17, Bruce Cassidy took over for the remaining 27 regular season games and the playoffs.

"He’s a great coach, a great person, taught me a lot about how to play the game the right way."#NHLBruins speak with the media about Claude Julien's upcoming return to Boston on Wednesday night: pic.twitter.com/X9rAJSiSiU

— Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) January 16, 2018

With Julien's overall track record, it’s odd for one to be been fired four times before a season ended, each time with a winning record, and the reasons that led to each situation include anywhere from midseason slumps and the teams opting for a new voice to Lamoriello being Lamoriello.

Julien has only had two sub .500 seasons in his coaching career, going back to his first year in Montreal (12-16-3-5) in 36 games when he took over midseason, and 2017-18 with Montreal (29-40-13).

A coach might ultimately be as good as his players who are on the ice to lead the way. Certainly, Brad Larsen wasn’t helped much by the copious amounts of injuries this season in Columbus.

People think Patrice Bergeron showed up in the NHL a savant 2 way player. In 2006-07 the Bruins had a -70 goal differential. They then hired Claude Julien, a defense first, structure coach. The next year a -10 differential. By 08-09 they were +78. The importance of coaching. pic.twitter.com/hdt4pG09GK

— JABO Vancouver (@jabo_vancouver) January 10, 2023

Perhaps Patrice Bergeron becomes the best two-way player in the game with another coach, but the results in Boston are there in that the Bruins under Julien were routinely among the best clubs in the NHL, and also great at keeping the puck out and putting the puck in.

In 2006-07, the season before Julien took over, Boston was second to last in the league in goals allowed per game (3.48) before improving to 11th in his first year at the helm in 2007-08 (2.62).

The Blue Jackets can certainly benefit from the defensive-minded approach that Julien instills. Columbus has now had consecutive record-setting seasons in goals allowed as they surpassed the 300 mark for the first time this season.

Will Julien's style fit the makeup of the current roster, and does his philosophy translate to this modern NHL?

In Arpon Basu's article in The Athletic from 2021, he spoke to Julien's preference to keep lines together more so than constantly juggling the lineup because he wants forward combinations to build chemistry.

In Marc Antoine Godin's 2019 article in The Athletic, Doug Houda, Julien's assistant coach from Boston, spoke to Julien's give-and-take nature of being able to adapt to a roster but that he probably still has his core defensive philosophies intact.

"I still think he demands them to play great defence. If you don’t play great defence, then you’re not gonna play."

Sounds familiar.

Like any head coach that’s been in the league for a while, you can point to the fact they’ve been fired more than once for any particular reason, but rebuttal with the fact they’ve been hired over and over for a reason.

They win.

Coaches like Julien bring a certain credibility to the forefront. Winning credibility is always needed, especially for Columbus as they look to pick up the pieces of its core foundation. It sounds like an area that might have slipped under Larsen in the wake of the post-John Tortorella era.

This blurb from Portzline on Sunday speaks to this:

When Larsen was hired, he was seen as a kinder, gentler version of his predecessor, John Tortorella, who held players to account with a confrontation and unwavering style. Over time, however, the culture in the dressing room began to slide under Larsen. 

Julien has had a winning track record everywhere he’s been.

The Blue Jackets have had eight head coaches in franchise history. Could Julien be No. 9?