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The Montreal Canadiens fired head coach Michel Therrien on Tuesday and replaced him with Claude Julien.

The Habs have struggled of late, slipping into fifth place in the NHL’s Eastern Conference standings.

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“I would like to sincerely thank Michel for his relentless work with the Montreal Canadiens over his eight seasons behind the bench, including the last five seasons when we worked together,” Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin said in a release. “The decision to remove Michel from his coaching duties was a difficult one because I have lots of respect for him. I came to the conclusion that our team needed a new energy, a new voice, a new direction.

“Claude Julien is an experienced and well respected coach with a good knowledge of the Montreal market. Claude has been very successful as an NHL coach and he won the Stanley Cup. Today we hired the best available coach, and one of the league’s best. I am convinced that he has the capabilities to get our team back on the winning track.”

Julien, who was fired as coach of the Boston Bruins last week, returns to the city where he coached from 2003-06. He won the Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 2011 and was the longest-tenured coach until last week.

At 1-5-1, the Canadiens are the NHL’s worst team since the start of February. Montreal (31-19-8) still leads the Atlantic Division with 70 points and has a six-point lead on the Bruins and Ottawa Senators.

However, the Canadiens have played five more games than Ottawa and have struggled despite getting Alex Galchenyuk and other previously injured players back in their lineup.