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| - The reeling Montreal Canadiens fired head coach Claude Julien on Wednesday after back-to-back NHL losses to the lowly Ottawa Senators. Assistant Dominique Ducharme was named interim coach and former NHL winter Alex Burrows was added to the coaching staff in a shakeup that also saw assistant coach Kirk Muller fired. "I would like to sincerely thank Claude and Kirk for their contributions to our team over the past five years during which we worked together," Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said. "I have great respect for these two men whom I hold in high regard. In Dominique Ducharme, we see a very promising coach who will bring new life and new energy to our group. "We feel that our team can achieve high standards and the time had come for a change." The Canadiens got off to a hot start in the NHL season, but they have won just one of their past six games and dropped two in shootouts to the last-place Senators. They are fourth in the Scotia North Division, three points ahead of the Calgary Flames, after adding forwards Tyler Toffoli and Josh Anderson, goalie Jake Allen, and defensemen Joel Edmundson and Alexander Romanov during the offseason. The top four teams in each division will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Julien, 60, signed on for a second stint coaching the Canadiens in 2017, when he agreed to a five-year contract that ran through this season. Last August he was hospitalized with chest pains during the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. Muller took the helm as Julien underwent a cardiac procedure, but Julien said in November he was "100 percent" as the team geared up for the new campaign. In 18 NHL seasons coaching Julien has a record of 667-445-152 with 10 ties with the Canadiens, Boston Bruins and New Jersey Devils. He was voted the Jack Adams Award winner as NHL coach of the year in 2008-09 and won the Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 2011. bb/dj
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