The Montreal Canadiens announced on Wednesday morning that they had fired goaltending coach Eric Raymond and that Laval Rocket goaltending coach Mario Marciano would be taking over on an interim basis.
It’s been a tough season for the Montreal Canadiens’ goaltenders, and it ultimately cost goaltending coach Eric Raymond his job. The team announced on Friday morning that it had dismissed him. The coach had joined the Canadiens’ coaching staff in July 2021 when Dominique Ducharme, with whom he had worked for the Halifax Mooseheads and for Team Canada at the World Junior Championship, was the coach.
The Canadiens also announced that Marco Marciano was appointed interim goaltending coach. Marciano, who was the Laval Rocket goalie coach, first joined the organization in 2013 as a video coach back when the Canadiens’ AHL affiliate was in Hamilton. He became the goaltending coach when the team was based in Saint John’s and moved to Laval when the team did in 2017.
This season, he worked with Samuel Montembeault when the struggling netminder was sent to Laval on a conditioning stint, and it did seem to help, at least momentarily, but the former number one seems to have somewhat lost his way again. Something had to give, and Marcianno has been doing great work in the AHL, so it stands to reason that he’d be given a chance.
Furthermore, should the Canadiens decide to call up Jacob Fowler before the end of the season, he’ll be working with a coach he already knows and with whom he has clicked in Laval. Jakub Dobes has also worked with him during his two seasons in Laval, with great results. Marciano’s appointment will provide the goaltenders with some continuity.
While it’s a shame that Raymond lost his job, hockey is a business of results, and there wasn’t much else that the Canadiens could do at this stage.
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