MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens fired head coach Michel Therrien on Tuesday and replaced him with Claude Julien.
The Habs have struggled of late, slipping into fifth place in the NHL's Eastern Conference standings.
"I would like to sincerely thank Michel for his relentless work with the Montreal Canadiens over his eight seasons behind the bench, including the last five seasons when we worked together," Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said in a release. "The decision to remove Michel from his coaching duties was a difficult one because I have lots of respect for him. I came to the conclusion that our team needed a new energy, a new voice, a new direction.
"Claude Julien is an experienced and well respected coach with a good knowledge of the Montreal market. Claude has been very successful as an NHL coach and he won the Stanley Cup. Today we hired the best available coach, and one of the league's best. I am convinced that he has the capabilities to get our team back on the winning track."
Julien, who was fired as coach of the Boston Bruins last week, returns to the city where he coached from 2003-06. He won the Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 2011 and was the longest-tenured coach until last week.
At 1-5-1, the Canadiens are the NHL's worst team since the start of February. Montreal (31-19-8) still leads the Atlantic Division with 70 points and has a six-point lead on the Bruins and Ottawa Senators.
However, the Canadiens have played five more games than Ottawa and have struggled despite getting Alex Galchenyuk and other previously injured players back in their lineup.
Montreal dropped a 4-0 decision to the Bruins in their last game on Sunday. The Canadiens next play on Saturday against Winnipeg.
Therrien, 53, posted a record of 271 wins, 198 losses, 23 ties and 50 overtime losses in 542 career regular-season games with the Canadiens. He ranks fourth on the team's all-time list for games and wins.
Therrien led the Canadiens to the Eastern Conference final in 2014. Montreal started strong last season but missed the playoffs after goaltender Carey Price injured his knee in November.
Therrien reached the Stanley Cup final as head coach of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2008.
He's the fifth coach to be fired this season, following Julien, Ken Hitchcock of the St. Louis Blues, Jack Capuano of the New York Islanders and Gerard Gallant of the Florida Panthers. It's the 39th time an NHL coach has been fired mid-season over the past 10 years, more than the NFL, NBA or MLB over the same time span.
This is the third time Therrien has been fired during the season. The last time came in the winter of 2009 when the Penguins replaced him with Dan Blysma and went on to win the Cup four months later.
Julien, 56, who has also coached in New Jersey, won the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year in 2009.
With files from The Associated Press
