Canadiens lose Claude Julien's first game as coach

MONTREAL -- The Montreal Canadiens lost Claude Julien's first game as coach, 3-1 to the Winnipeg Jets at Bell Centre on Saturday.
Mathieu Perreault and Patrik Laine scored in the third period to break a 1-1 tie.
Julien, who was fired by the Boston Bruins on Feb. 7, was hired by the Canadiens on Tuesday. Montreal has one win in its past eight games (1-6-1).

WATCH: All Jets vs. Canadiens highlights
"You could see there was a lot of nervousness in the group, but also a little lack of confidence right now," said Julien, who replaced Michel Therrien for the second time as Canadiens coach.
Montreal took advantage of a turnover by Ben Chiarot to take a 1-0 lead at 11:04 of the first. Andrei Markov drove to the net to tap in a pass from Max Pacioretty on the right side.
Joel Armia scored a shorthanded goal at 4:52 of the second period to tie it 1-1.
"That was huge," Perreault said of Armia's goal. "You know, it starts it up. We were playing a great game until then and then he ties it up, and from there we just feel like we took over."

Perreault put the Jets ahead 2-1 at 1:16 with a backhand shot past Carey Price from the slot.
"I didn't even really see it," Perreault said. "I saw the replay and it was an awesome pass. Honestly, it came to me and I just whacked it in."
Laine scored his 28th goal into an empty net with 1:17 remaining.
Connor Hellebuyck made 19 saves for Winnipeg (27-29-5), which has five points in its past three games (2-0-1) after losing four straight.
"It's a continuation," Jets coach Paul Maurice. "We've had three really, really strong games, and more of the same tonight. They're almost identical games that we've played, really strong with our gap, not giving the other team a whole lot, and getting enough offense. The time of year says you're probably not going to see the 7-6 games anymore and you're going to get into the 2-1 games, and we were comfortable with that."
Price made 30 saves for Montreal (31-20-8), which extended its losing streak to three in its first game since changing coaches during its five-day break.
"It wasn't a strong game," Pacioretty said. "We got outplayed, especially I feel in our end, and that was tough to create anything off of that offensively."
Julien signed a five-year contract to replace Therrien, who was fired after Montreal went 1-5-1 in the seven games preceding its five-day break. Julien first replaced Therrien during the 2002-03 season.
"I'm trying to learn as much about this team as I can in a short period of time because of where we are in the schedule and then where we are in the season," Julien said.

Goal of the game

Armia deked Price on a breakaway to score after stripping the puck from Canadiens defenseman Nathan Beaulieu in the neutral zone.

Save of the game

Hellebuyck made a save on Nathan Beaulieu's shot off a cross-ice pass by Alex Galchenyuk on the power play in the second period to keep it tied.

Highlight of the game

Dustin Byfuglien carried the puck along the right boards and somehow made a centering pass with three Canadiens converged on him to set up Perreault's goal.
"I haven't seen a lot of one-handed, inside toe-drags to your back foot into the slot," Maurice said. "He's the one guy that's capable of doing it."

Unsung performance of the game

Jets center Mark Scheifele won 11-of-18 faceoffs and drew praise from Maurice for bouncing back with a strong effort after he was on the ice for the losing goal in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday.
"That's just a great sign of character and leadership in a young man," Maurice said.

They said it

"We were on the right side of pucks and we were battling. We battled the entire night and our forecheck was good." -- Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck
"I think we're overthinking the game a little bit too much. I think once we build up our confidence and just let our instincts take over I think we'll see an improvement." -- Canadiens goalie Carey Price
"We still have a good thing going. We want to use these two days that we have now for practice to really dive into the tweaks in our game, you know, work on what we want to brush up, and then get on a roll." -- Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty

Need to know

Julien moved Galchenyuk to the third line in the third period after he started at center on the top line with Pacioretty and right wing Alexander Radulov.

What's next

Jets: At the Ottawa Senators on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; TVA Sports, TSN5, TSN3, NHL.TV)
Canadiens: At the New York Rangers on Tuesday (7 p.m. ET; MSG, SNE, RDS, NHL.TV)