Controversy swirling around struggling Canadiens

In a tweet that now has been deleted, player agent Dan Milstein blamed Montreal Canadiens coach Claude Julien for the diminishing Russian presence on the team. The tweet read, “Alex Galchenyuk isn’t a problem but coach is. Has never successfully coached Russian. Took midseason most Russian club. All but one gone.”

The reality is that since Julien’s return to Montreal as coach in February, the team has parted ways with Russian defensemen Nikita Nesterov, Alexei Emelin, Mikhail Sergachev and Andrei Markov and winger Alex Radulov via trade or free agency.

Milstein is Galchenyuk’s agent, but he represents or has represented many Russian-born players including Nesterov, Nikita Kucherov, Pavel Datsyuk, Nikita Zaitsev. Artemi Panarin and

Galchenyuk was born in Milwaukee and has represented the United States in world hockey tournaments. He has struggled early this season with just two goals in nine games while being been shuffled up and down the lineup as Julien tries to kick-start an offense that ranked 29th in goals scored and has stumbled to a 2-7-1 this season after a 4-0 home loss Thursday night against the Los Angeles Kings. The Canadiens front office strongly disagreed with Milstein’s opinion, citing a large variety of different circumstances for the loss of each Russian player he he mentioned. Meanwhile, there are increasing reports that Montreal general manager and former Penguins defenseman Marc Bergevin’s job is in danger.

Coyotes

Speaking of general managers facing the heat these days, consider John Chayka of Arizona. After the Coyotes fell to 0-9-1 with a 5-2 loss Thursday night against the Rangers in New York, the franchise’s overall record since the 28-year-old wunderkind, whose journey from Ontario Hockey League player to stats guru to an NHL general manager’s job drew a lot of headlines, took over is 30-51-11.

Elsewhere

It’s official, former Coyotes captain Shane Doan is making the long-rumored move to join the NHL’s hockey operations department. Senior executive vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell confirmed the move Thursday but said there isn’t a set of responsibilities yet for Doan, who played 21 NHL seasons with the Coyotes/Winnipeg Jets franchise.