from Jack Todd at the Montreal Gazette,

If it were true that nice guys finish last, Claude Julien wouldn’t stand a chance in the cutthroat world of big-time hockey.

Mercifully, Leo Durocher’s old saw doesn’t always apply —at least not to Julien. The man is one of the most respected coaches in the National Hockey League, a hockey lifer with a Stanley Cup championship on his resumé, a winner who doesn’t have an arrogant bone in his body.

I thought that after 10 years dealing with the stress in Boston, Julien deserved a few months’ worth of beach time before he took another job. Obviously, he begged to differ. He’s ready to go to work and this old columnist, for one, couldn’t be happier.

I’ve dealt with every Canadiens coach since Pat Burns and to me, Julien and Alain Vigneault are numbers 1A and 1B when it comes to honesty, decency and character. In my world, character matters. Julien has character. He’s the real deal, salt of the earth, a standup guy, whatever you want to call him.

Julien is not a screamer and he won’t use Michel Therrien’s heavy-handed sarcasm to motivate a player. He’s honest, he lets his players know where they stand, he gets the job done.

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