(UPDATING -- ADDING QUOTES) 

*Mario Tremblay resigns as coach of the Canadiens*
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Mario Tremblay, whose tenure as head coach of the Montreal
Canadiens will be remembered because of the tirade and
subsequent trade of future Hall-of-Fame goaltender Patrick Roy,
resigned today. 

The team announced the resignation in a news conference
conducted by vice president and general manager Rejean Houle,
who orchestrated the trade of Roy on December 6th, 1995. 

The 40-year-old Tremblay was named Montreal's 22nd coach on
October 21st, 1995, replacing Jacques Demers, and failed to win
a playoff series in his two seasons there. 

"I was so happy when I got the job as coach of the Canadiens,"
said Tremblay. "But there's more than two sides to the fence,
there are three sides: the coach, the players and the media.
Being head coach means a lot, but family life is more
important." 

"We took our time," said Houle, who explained the process of
accepting Tremblay's resignation.  "He came and saw me on Monday
and said he was resigning because of family reasons. So I told
him to reconsider, I wouldn't accept his resignation. We went
out to dinner on Monday night with our wives and he came back to
my office on Tuesday and said he's still resigning." 

This season, the Montreal defense was the fourth-worst in the
league to the Boston Bruins, Pittsburgh Penguins and San Jose
Sharks and the Canadiens finished eighth in the Eastern
Conference.  They drew the top-seeded Devils in the first round
of the playoffs and subsequently lost the first three games of
the best-of-seven series before falling in five games. 

"After we got eliminated, I looked at my wife and two daughters
and didn't see any smile on their faces," a tearful Tremblay
said.  "I wanted to see them smile again, so I decided to
leave." 

Just four days before the Roy trade, Tremblay, coaching just his
24th game in the NHL, let the netminder stay in for nine goals
in an 11-1 home rout against Detroit. 

Roy had a tirade during the game when Tremblay would not remove
him.  Because of the showmanship by Roy, Tremblay and Houle
decided to trade him and captain Mike Keane, a defense-minded
winger, to the Colorado Avalanche for goaltender Jocelyn
Thibault and wingers Martin Rucinsky and Andrei Kovalenko. 

Roy backstopped Colorado to the Stanley Cup later in the season
and helped Colorado to the President's Trophy as the top team in
the regular season in 1996-97. 

After the Canadiens started the 1994-1995 season with five
losses, Tremblay came from the broadcast booth and guided the
team to a six-game winning streak and helped the team win 12 of
its first 14 games under his reign. 

The Habs finished sixth in the Eastern Conference that season
with a 40-27-10 record.  They won the first two games of their
playoff series with the New York Rangers on the road, but
Montreal lost four straight thereafter and was bounced from the
playoffs. 

This season, there was inconsistent goaltending from Thibault
partly due to a suspect defense that was weakened over the years
by the departures of Eric Desjardins, Mathieu Schneider, J.J.
Daigneault and Lyle Odelein, who was traded to the New Jersey
Devils before the season for winger Stephane Richer. 

"If I made a mistake as a coach, it's because I neglected the
defense," said Tremblay.  "I'm convinced the team will find a
good replacement and I hope that person is patient.  I may
consider coaching again." 

Houle said there is no rush to find a new coach. 

"We will take our time ... we have no calendar, and I have no
idea who it will be," Houle assured, though reports say Pat
Burns, among others, coald be coming back.  "I told the
assistants that the new coach will have carte blanche to choose
his assistants." 

"I want to thank all my coaches, because, after all, we did make
it to the playoffs," Tremblay said.  "I convinced the players
that we would get into the playoffs.  I wanted to go further in
the playoffs than just the first round. ... I spoke to my father
last night and he told me to leave with my head high." 

Speculation was that Tremblay would have been fired with a loss
in Game Four. The Canadiens have never suffered the final loss
of a playoff sweep on home ice and needed a double-overtime
victory in Game Four to salvage some pride and break a
seven-game playoff losing slide. 

They were ripped, 4-0, in Game Five in New Jersey and eliminated
from the playoffs in the first round once again.  They have not
captured a playoff series since winning the Stanley Cup in
1992-93 and missed the playoffs in 1994-95. 

"Some of the media were mean to me but (team president) Ron
Corey said, `Don't let it bother you, we'll get through that.' 
If the players had quit, we wouldn't have made the playoffs,"
Tremblay said.  "I am proud of my work, my head is held high,
it's not in between my legs. 

"A head coach is not a killer of a bandit, but I wasn't treated
fairly by the media.  I had to quit before the criticism went
further.  I'm certainly not proud of any of the players on my
team who talked against me behind my back." 

But he also thanked the players that played hard and showed
leadership, including Mark Recchi, Vincent Damphousse, Peter
Popovic and Turner Stevenson. 

Tremblay joined the Canadiens as a player for the 1974-75
season.  At 18, he was the youngest to ever wear a Montreal
jersey and played 12 seasons for the Habs, winning five Stanley
Cups before retiring in 1986 because of an injured shoulder. 

In 852 career games, he had 258 goals and 326 assists for 584
points and 1,043 penalty minutes.  In 101 playoff games,
Tremblay registered 20 goals and 29 assists for 49 points with
187 penalty minutes.