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Twitter Lampoons Claude Julien With #JulienSmearCampaign

BOSTON (CBS) -- Claude Julien didn't last long on the open market. Just seven days after the Boston Bruins gave their now-former head coach the ax, the first-place Montreal Canadiens shocked the hockey world when they swooped in and replaced Michel Therrien with Julien.

Just one week after Julien was at the podium wearing a "Do Your Job" shirt to support the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, he is now coaching Boston's chief rival. The immediate social media reactions were swift and strong.

Some likened the move to a professional wrestler suddenly turning on the good guys and becoming a villain, or "heel."

On Wednesday, 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich started up the #JulienSmearCampaign hashtag on Twitter. The hashtag parodies the way that Boston's local sports media has shown a tendency in the past to rip former players and coaches after they are fired or shipped out of town in any way, often for people who didn't really deserve it.

A guy like Julien, who was often gracious with the media and didn't have any kind of baggage, would be a prime target for a made-up smear campaign. Here's a sampling of what came out on Twitter:

Sounds about right.

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