NHL

This is just too weird. Sure, history repeats itself…but does it have to this specific?

Let us take you back to January of 2003. The Montreal Canadiens fired coach Michel Terrien and turned the team over to their top minor league guy – Claude Julien. Julien coached the team for three years before he too became a midseason termination.

Julien moved on to the Boston Bruins and guided the team to a Stanley Cup championship in 2011 and the finals again in 2013, only to find himself out of work last week.

Ah, but not for long.

On Tuesday, the Canadiens fired (you guessed it) Michel Terrien and gave his job to (you guessed it) Claude Julien. Cue the spooky music.

It has been a porte tournante (revolving door) in Montreal for too long. Maybe this move will end the churn. After Terrien got dumped the first time for Julien, the club employed Bob Gainey (twice, though he was the general manager and fired the coaches and took over for them), Guy Carbonneau, Jacque Martin and Randy Cunneyworth before rehiring Terrien. The Canadiens have not won the Stanley Cup since 1993, and they were the last team based in Canada to do so.

The Canadiens have some solid players and a six-point lead in their division. Now they have the NHL’s coach of the year from 2009. So maybe they have hope.

But somehow it seems as if we’ve been here before.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman