Claude Julien Is A Hypocrite

Claude Julien came off as a whining, complaining hypocrite after running his mouth about his former team on Saturday night.

The head coach of the Montreal Canadiens had some choice words for the Bruins after they came from behind late and defeated the Habs 2-1 on Saturday night.  That win gave Boston a series sweep of their heated rivals, and apparently set Julien over the edge.

Julien accused the Bruins of doing “embarrassing things in the game of hockey” – which in his words were embellishing penalty calls and getting away with infractions on their end.

Julien stated after the game on Saturday night (per Joe Haggerty from NBC Sports Boston):

“I think it’s pretty obvious. When your best shooter is on a breakaway and doesn’t get a shot away, I think everybody agrees that it should have been a penalty shot. What’s embarrassing is [Rick] Nash embellishing [a high-sticking call]. The stick hits his shoulder, it doesn’t even hit his face and he embellishes and looks at the referee.

“Those are embarrassing things in the game of hockey. We’re a tired team and we have to kill penalties, and it eventually caught up to us. That’s disappointing that when we had some of those things happen, or another penalty that’s called five seconds later because we end up on a two-on-one. As I said, we evaluate ourselves and we expect others to evaluate themselves as well.”

Someone call the wambulance for Claude Julien:

There’s a lot of bitching and complaining to take in with those comments.

First off, how in the hell does the coach of the god damn Montreal Canadiens accuse any other team of flopping/embellishing?

That’s like LeBron James complaining about someone else getting ridiculous calls… oh wait that’s a bad example because he does that all season long.

Julien should know better than to call any other team “embarrassing”, when the team that he currently coaches, and went up against for nearly 10 years as the head of the Bruins, has been known to be perpetual floppers.  Montreal players acted like they were shot every time someone touched them.  That’s why it sounds preposterous for anyone associated with the Canadiens to complain about embellishment.

In fact, Julien HIMSELF accused the Canadiens of flopping in 2013 (per The Guardian):

“This is embarrassing for our game: the embellishing. Right now they’ve got over 100 power plays [this season] and it’s pretty obvious why. We’re trying to clean that out of our game, and its got to be done soon…. It’s about the game and the embellishment embarrasses our game. We need to be better than that.”

That’s the definition of a hypocrite right there.

On Saturday night, Julien referenced several calls that had NOTHING to do with the outcome of the game.  Boston did not score on the power play gained by the high stick that struck Nash; Montreal failed to score on the breakaway – which wasn’t a clear one – that was not called as a penalty shot; and the delayed penalty call was an obvious trip that should have been called way before the subsequent 2-on-1 up ice.

That’s like LeBron complaining about not getting to the free throw line when his team gives up 110+ points and loses by 15… oh wait he does that too.  I’ve got to stop using him in these comparisons…

Julien didn’t complain about the one call that led to Boston’s lone regulation goal, because it was an obvious delay of game that didn’t need to happen.  Jonathan Drouin got nervous and threw the puck over the boards late in the third, which set up the theatrics of Jake DeBrusk.

I would think losing a late lead because of a silly penalty would be embarrassing, but I guess not.

“We’re a tired team and we have to kill penalties”… does anyone else need a tissue to wipe their tears away?

Oh no, the poor Canadiens had to play the night before, then had to kill off some penalties, and finally gave up the lead they held for the majority of the game.  They must be the only team that had to travel and play on back-to-back nights…

Oh wait, Boston did that twice in the last two weeks, and on one occasion they won both games on the West Coast.

You know what’s embarrassing, Claude?

Your team.

The Canadiens are 25-29-11 this season, so that means they’d be right at .500 if not for those four pesky losses to the Bruins.

You know what’s also embarrassing, Claude?

The fact that your former squad has earned points in nearly 70% of their games since you (finally) got booted from the bench.  Bruce Cassidy has a .694 points percentage with Boston, which is better than every year the B’s skated with Julien at the helm except for the 2008-09 and 2013-14 seasons.  Montreal is 41-36-12 during Julien’s second stint, while Cassidy is 58-23-9 in that same timeframe.

Maybe by running his mouth and spewing some absolute nonsense, Julien will endear himself to whatever is left of the Canadiens’ fan base this season.  Or maybe they also think that it’s embarrassing for a coach that is being paid more than all but four of his players (Shea Weber, Carey Price, Jeff Petry, and Drouin) to run their team into mediocrity.

Nah, that would require Canadiens’ fans to actually have sane thoughts.  These are the same people that STILL boo Zdeno Chara for checking Max Pacioretty into the stanchion between the benches in Montreal nearly seven years ago.  They called the cops and wanted Chara arrested for assault.  There was a criminal investigation into a hit in a hockey game.

Now that’s embarrassing.

That’s why Claude Julien and the Montreal Canadiens are a match made in heaven.

Adam Belue (@albinomamba44)