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Julien to coach 1000th game, by Andrew Saadalla |
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The Montreal Canadiens will look to put on a convincing show in front of their Bell Centre faithful tonight as they host the New York Islanders. Claude Julien will coach his 1000th career game, and after his troops defeated an elite New York Rangers team last Tuesday, one would be inclined to believe that icing the same lineup could generate the desired results.
In trying to string together consecutive wins for the first time since early January, the Habs will do their best to make Julien’s 1000th game a memorable one. Ever the humble man, the head coach told LaPresse:
“I can’t believe that I’ve coached so many games. But I could not have done so without being properly surrounded. I had great assistant coaches and players. Things went my way often, and I consider myself very lucky. Coaching my 1000th game where it all first began is truly something special.”
But the Habs are not the only ones looking to benefit from a coaching change, as their opponents have won 11 of their last 17 games since relieving Jack Capuano of his duties and replacing him with Doug Weight. The Islanders’ 2.92 goals-against average (24th in the NHL), 25th-ranked power play and 23rd-ranked penalty kill could be cracked open by the Habs who will have to defend against the seventh-best goal-scoring team in the league. A hungry, desperate Islanders team is being closely chased by the Florida Panthers and the Boston Bruins, who both have 66 points. The Canadiens will need to be wary of their opponents, as the latter boast a 6-3-1 record in their last 10 games.
After finally getting some secondary scoring from Shea Weber and Andrew Shaw on Tuesday while Carey Price stole the show, it comes as no surprise that Julien will go with the recipe that gave the team success:
With all of that in mind, today’s poll asks:
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