Michel Therrien coached his 600th NHL game Saturday night in the Montreal Canadiens win over the New York Rangers. The Habs posted a dominating and convincing 3-1 win for their head coach’s milestone.
It was a memorable game for Therrien, with some small victories and paths being crossed, all wrapped up into one big victory. It was his 294th win overall, and his 159th with the Habs.
Therrien got his break into professional coaching in the 1990-91 season with the Laval Titan of the QMJHL as a midseason replacement, getting a 2-1 record before going off to the playoffs and losing in round two.
The next two seasons he was an assistant coach for Bob Hartley with the Titan, until 1993-94 when he got a full time job coaching the team just fourteen games into the season. He coached them to a 48-16 record, and lost in the finals. A then-unknown defenseman was on that team, by the name of Francis Bouillon.
In 1994-95, the Laval Titans added College Francais onto their name, and Therrien coached the team to an impressive 48-22-2 record. They made the playoffs and lost in the finals, again. The 95-96 season brought some change for Therrien though, as he was then hired by the Granby Predateurs.
He led this team, again with Bouillon and newcomer Georges Laraque, to a league best 56-12-2 record, and went on to win the QMJHL Championship in a five game series. It was Therrien’s first championship win in three consecutive tries. It was also in this series that he out-coached future NHL coaching rival Alain Vigneault, who was behind the bench for the Beauport Harfangs.
After winning, Therrien returned to the helm of the Predateurs for one more season, leading the team to a disappointing 44-20-6 record and losing in round two against the Val d’Or Foreurs.
Therrien was then hired by the AHL’s Fredericton Canadiens, the “Baby Habs”, who he coached for four seasons, two seasons in Fredericton and the last two as the Quebec Citadelles. He had some decent success with the Habs farm team, but was unable to get past round three to the finals for the Calder Cup.
Then in 2000-01, 19 games into the AHL season, Therrien was called up to the Montreal Canadiens to be the coach after Vigneault was fired for a poor start, becoming the 21st coach in Habs history. He took a struggling Habs squad and made the most of the season, going 23-27-6 and missing the playoffs. The next season, Therrien’s first full NHL season, he got the Habs season turned around and led them to a 36-31-16 record, good enough for the playoffs. His squad upset the top-seeded Boston Bruins in six games, a great series, before falling to the Carolina Hurricanes in six games.
In 2002-03, it was a completely different story. With the Habs struggling once again, and a record of 18-19-4-5 after 46 games, then-GM Andre Savard opted to fire Therrien, ending his first stint with the Habs with a record of 77-77-37.
He wasn’t without a job for long though. He was hired by the Pittsburgh Penguins farm team, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, to be their head coach, usurping Glenn Patrick. Therrien had Mike Yeo as his assistant coach for the two and a quarter seasons he was head coach there. Therrien posted a winning season in each of those seasons, along with a finals appearance and a round two loss, respectively.
In the 2005-06 season, after leading the “Baby Pens” to a staggering 21-1-2-1 start to the season, he was brought up to the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins to replace Ed Olczyk, who had a 8-17-6 record with Pittsburgh. Therrien fared not much better with a 14-29-8 line the rest of the year.
However, he turned the Pens from basement dwellers into playoffs contenders with two consecutive 47 win seasons. He made the playoffs both times, first with a disappointing round one loss, then a heated and hard-fought Stanley Cup Final loss against the Detroit Red Wings. In the 2008-09 season, he got off to a mediocre start, lasting 57 games with a record of 27-25, before getting replaced with Dan Bylsma, who went on to win the Stanley Cup with Sidney Crosby and company.
Therrien then took a three year hiatus from coaching until he was hired back by the Canadiens in 2012 for his second stint with the famed club, taking the reins from Jacques Martin and Randy Cunneyworth after one of the worst seasons in Habs history. He started the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season well and got the Habs into the playoffs with a 29-14-5 record, before falling to the Ottawa Senators in round one.
In 2013-14, he got even better with a 46-28-8 record, reaching the Eastern Conference Final versus the New York Rangers, and losing in game six by a heartbreaking 1-0 score.
It’s no secret that Therrien turns into a stone statue during games, only showing one, maximum two, facial expressions throughout the game. He looks like The Thinker sculpture. But this means he is cool and collected – and not trying to break panes of glass during games (yeah, I’m looking at you, Patrick Roy).
His coaching style confuses some with his constant mixing of lines, even if they work, but he does make some smart decisions. For example, having David Desharnais mainly start in the offensive zone is a good one, because he knows Desharnais is not good defensively.
He has made some odd decisions regarding his defense pairings, most notably sometimes starting Douglas Murray with P.K. Subban last season.
His killing of the Triple Low Five was confusing too, and seemed like he was trying to control the emotions expressed by his players after games. But all in all, Therrien has still done a great job of coaching the Habs this second time around, and when Marc Bergevin inked him to a four year extension, it showed that the organization has complete trust in Therrien, and we as fans should too.
Therrien has compiled an 82-43-10 record thus far into this stint, including 2014-15, along with two playoffs appearances. He has a good, youthful squad in front of him, with franchise pieces in Carey Price, Subban, and Alex Galchenyuk. With more amazing coaching and being a good personal coach to the younger guys, there is no reason to think that the Bleu-Blanc et Rouge won’t be contenders for many more years down the road, with Therrien at the helm.
Congratulations to Michel to coaching 600 games, and here’s hoping to 600 more. Maybe now the #FireTherrien trend will die down?
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