Flyers

Canadiens Coach Claude Julien Hospitalized with Chest Pains, Unlikely to Coach Remainder of Series vs. Flyers

By Russ Joy

Published: Aug 13th, 2020 · 3:07 PM EDT

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When the Montreal Canadiens take the Scotiabank Arena ice on Friday, they’ll do so without their head coach Claude Julien, who was hospitalized Wednesday night after experiencing pains in his chest per TSN’s Frank Seravalli:

Bergevin says it is not COVID-related. Associate coach Kirk Muller will take over as acting head coach for now, working in conjunction with other assistants. Bergevin relayed that although Muller does not speak French, he asked for understanding given extenuating circumstances.

— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) August 13, 2020

In a follow-up tweet, Seravalli ruled out the chest pains being related in anyway to COVID-19. The real stunner here -for those who might not have previously been in of the know- is the final line of the follow-up tweet. That’s right, friends. The Canadiens’ GM asked for fans and Habs historians to forgive the team for promoting assistant coach Kirk Muller, an anglophone, to acting head coach, because he doesn’t speak French. Quite the open-minded crew up there.

But, Russ, you know every coach is expected to know English. Hypocritical much? No. I don’t care if the coach speaks English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, or Magyar. If the coach gets the best out of the players and sets the team up for success, that’s what matters most.

It’s not like the Canadiens needed any further motivation as they were unable to pull off a Game 1 upset over the Flyers, but one would assume there’s going to be a “#WeSkateforClaude” sign somewhere in the arena.

Friday should be a fun one to watch.

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