Even if Tuesday night's controversial goalie interference call had resulted in a victory, Claude Julien still wasn't long for the Montreal Canadiens. They squandered a hot start and tumbled down the standings in the pressure cooker North Division. General manager Marc Bergevin had seen enough.
"It's a hard thing to watch. Our team was chasing the puck. We're not in sync. Sometimes you can blame injuries. But we had none! Zero," said Bergevin.
Julien and associate coach Kirk Muller were fired on Wednesday. Julien ended his second tour of duty as Montreal head coach with a 113-113-35 record, qualifying for the postseason twice but failing to win a playoff round -- although the Canadiens did eliminate Pittsburgh in the qualification round of last season's expanded postseason.
As Dominique Ducharme takes over a 9-5-4 team on an interim basis, what's the thinking for the Canadiens? And what's next for Julien?