A few days before the start of the five-ring matches in Beijing, it turned out that Julian fell on the ice and was injured, so the second coach, Jeremy Coleton, took charge of preparing the team. The 71-year-old arrived in Beijing recently and betrayed the truth.
The Stanley Cup winning coach and national team arrived in Davos, Switzerland, ahead of the Olympics, and a mini sled was included in the team building program. However, Julian flipped and flew into a tree. He was taken to the hospital where an X-ray found that some of his ribs were broken.
After returning to the hotel he felt more and more severe pain, so he checked again. Then it turned out that one of his ribs penetrated his lungs.
He was kept in hospital, and of course he could not keep up with the others who had to leave for the Chinese capital in the meantime. At the first meeting, Colliton led the Maple Leaves, easily defeating the silver medalist of the Germans four to four years earlier with a score of 5-1, but at the next meeting Julian was already behind the bench.
Julient was named NHL Coach of the Year in 2009 for winning the Jack Adams Award and leading the Boston Bruins to a league title in 2011. He worked in the North American Pro League until February 2021, when he was led by the Montreal Canadiens due to a poor start to the season.
(Cover image: Claude Julien. Photo: Hannah Foslin/Getty Images)
