MONTREAL -- Montreal Canadiens coach Claude Julien says he is feeling ''100%'' after a heart procedure.
Julien had a stent installed in a coronary artery Aug. 13 at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto after complaining of chest pains. The procedure came a day after Montreal opened its first-round playoff series with Philadelphia.
''To be honest with you it really felt like it was heartburn, so after a while when it didn’t want to go away, I just reached out to Graham (Rynbend), our medical trainer, and just told him about it,’' Julien said Wednesday on a teleconference with reporters.
''After talking with him we decided it was safer to head over to the hospital and get checked out a little closer. In doing that, they found one of my arteries was partially blocked, and that they needed to put in a stent. That got done right away, and I couldn’t have asked for better care at St. Michael’s Hospital. They were awesome.’'
Julien said he didn’t suffer a heart attack and was ready to return to work had the Canadians beaten the Flyers and advanced to the second round. Montreal pushed favored Philadelphia to six games before its run in Toronto came to an end.
''Came back to Montreal just to rest, and had we won Game 6 Friday night, I was on my way back to Toronto for that day quarantine and would have been definitely ready for the next round,’' Julien said.
Associate coach Kirk Muller took over behind the bench in Julien’s absence.