Report: NHL Head Coach Fired for Abusing a Player

The sudden firing of Montreal Canadiens head coach Michel Therrien shocked the hockey world. But the reason why the coach was fired may be even more shocking.

According to a report from Max Truman of DLC on February 9th following a game against the Philadelphia Flyers, Therrien unleashed a verbal assault on Canadiens forward Andrew Shaw, which the rest of the players witnessed. Martin Leclerc of Radio-Canada also reported Therrien went beyond calling out Shaw regarding the game of hockey, and it degenerated into personal verbal attacks against the veteran forward.

At this point, one of the locker room leaders stood up and told Therrien to stop the attack. Truman believes the unidentified player who spoke out was goaltender Carey Price. Less than a week later, locker room leaders met with general manager Marc Bergevin and Therrien was fired.