Dominique Ducharme. Interim head coach of the Habs thread

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Canadiens Ghost

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Dec 14, 2011
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I was surprised there wasn't a dedicated thread on him already. So Dominique Ducharme is the Habs new (interim) head coach. For those of us that don't know him that well, what can you tell us about him?
I believe as a head coach he's won the memorial Cup with Halifax and the World Juniors with Canada.
What's his style?
Do you have faith in him?
Do you believe he'll win the job by the end of the season?
 
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Miller Time

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Sep 16, 2004
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in a very tough spot...

GM is under immense pressure, but likely still has full endorsment/ear of the owner/president (thus another sacrificial lamb will be required unless the playoffs, and maybe even a series win, happens).

Taking over a room with several veterans underperforming and several young players with signs of shaky confidence (but who need to perform at consistent, high level in order for team to have success).

Will have almost no practice time or ability to make significant system/style changes as the team plays basically every other day until the end of the season... and beyond rest/recovery needs in between games, meeting/training time is constricted by COVID protocols.


If we are at all committed to giving Ducharme a fair shot, he needs to keep his job through next year at the minimum, any evaluation of his "work" in these next few weeks would be woefully unrepresentative of his actual capacity.


My hope, is that his ability to connect, empower and leverage skilled/talented players will carry over to the pros and he'll help guys like Drouin, Mete, JKO, Suzuki play with more confidence and less of a noose around their necks.

I doubt we see much more in terms of accountability for guys like Chiarot, Danault, Tatar, as he'll need the veteran buy in to have any shot at salvaging the season
 

CHfan1

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Apr 23, 2012
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Jeff O’Neill on Ducharme: ‘From the world junior experience Jeff had with him; Very qualified and very intelligent.’ O’Neill would have been working with TSN at the world juniors I believe then.
 
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Kriss E

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May 3, 2007
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in a very tough spot...

GM is under immense pressure, but likely still has full endorsment/ear of the owner/president (thus another sacrificial lamb will be required unless the playoffs, and maybe even a series win, happens).

Taking over a room with several veterans underperforming and several young players with signs of shaky confidence (but who need to perform at consistent, high level in order for team to have success).

Will have almost no practice time or ability to make significant system/style changes as the team plays basically every other day until the end of the season... and beyond rest/recovery needs in between games, meeting/training time is constricted by COVID protocols.


If we are at all committed to giving Ducharme a fair shot, he needs to keep his job through next year at the minimum, any evaluation of his "work" in these next few weeks would be woefully unrepresentative of his actual capacity.


My hope, is that his ability to connect, empower and leverage skilled/talented players will carry over to the pros and he'll help guys like Drouin, Mete, JKO, Suzuki play with more confidence and less of a noose around their necks.

I doubt we see much more in terms of accountability for guys like Chiarot, Danault, Tatar, as he'll need the veteran buy in to have any shot at salvaging the season

I don't think Bergevin has another life, he's used all of them. This is his 3rd coach, after inheriting a competent roster at worst, he's been struggling to make the POs. He's made a lot of moves this off season, finally, that gave him a good boost but with that raised the levels of expectations.
If Ducharme doesn't right the ship, and we end up missing the POs (if CGY can get their shit together too), I don't see how Bergevin gets another extension.

As for Ducharme, ya, tough spot. But I expect big changes from tomorrow at least in the lines, deployment, and our special teams formations.
That was the biggest knocks on Julien, it would be very bizarre to see the same lines and usage.
 

sandviper

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Jan 26, 2016
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Bergevin: Well my friend, I hope this works. It didn’t with Therrien, and it didn’t with Julien. Here’s hoping that third time’s Du-charme.

Ducharme: :facepalm:

Bergevin: Oh, since your first name is Dominique, we’ll call you DD. You know who else was DD? My BFF’s favorite son, David...

Ducharme: :facepalm: :facepalm:
 

dinodebino

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Sep 27, 2017
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I don't think Bergevin has another life, he's used all of them. This is his 3rd coach, after inheriting a competent roster at worst, he's been struggling to make the POs. He's made a lot of moves this off season, finally, that gave him a good boost but with that raised the levels of expectations.
If Ducharme doesn't right the ship, and we end up missing the POs (if CGY can get their shit together too), I don't see how Bergevin gets another extension.

As for Ducharme, ya, tough spot. But I expect big changes from tomorrow at least in the lines, deployment, and our special teams formations.
That was the biggest knocks on Julien, it would be very bizarre to see the same lines and usage.
I think it's going to take more than one game for the changes to operate. I see it gradually in about 2 weeks or so.
 

Miller Time

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Sep 16, 2004
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I don't think Bergevin has another life, he's used all of them. This is his 3rd coach, after inheriting a competent roster at worst, he's been struggling to make the POs. He's made a lot of moves this off season, finally, that gave him a good boost but with that raised the levels of expectations.
If Ducharme doesn't right the ship, and we end up missing the POs (if CGY can get their shit together too), I don't see how Bergevin gets another extension.

As for Ducharme, ya, tough spot. But I expect big changes from tomorrow at least in the lines, deployment, and our special teams formations.
That was the biggest knocks on Julien, it would be very bizarre to see the same lines and usage.

i hope you are right... but the extent to which he's leveraged his personal relationship/influence on Molson to keep himself in the job this long, despite the obviously and emphatically poor performance across just about every metric one would use to evaluate a GM, gives me little confidence he won't manage to leverage more excuses to extend his tenure
 

Kriss E

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I think it's going to take more than one game for the changes to operate. I see it gradually in about 2 weeks or so.

I don't need to see the changes all clicking at 100%, it can take time for the players to get used to new linemates and strategies, but there's no reason not to see a lot of changes implemented right away.
 
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Kriss E

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i hope you are right... but the extent to which he's leveraged his personal relationship/influence on Molson to keep himself in the job this long, despite the obviously and emphatically poor performance across just about every metric one would use to evaluate a GM, gives me little confidence he won't manage to leverage more excuses to extend his tenure
No doubt about that but everyone has an expiration date. Molson was on the radio talking about how much confidence he has in Bergevin and that he believes he's a great GM, but that was when we were popping 5 goals per game thinking we are finally back on track. If the team keeps struggling and all those changes lead to not even making the POs, well, I'm not sure how he can be backed up further.

That said, wouldn't be the first time I thought there's no way he can survive things.
 

MXD

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Oct 27, 2005
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in a very tough spot...

GM is under immense pressure, but likely still has full endorsment/ear of the owner/president (thus another sacrificial lamb will be required unless the playoffs, and maybe even a series win, happens).

I'm not QUITE sure what you mean here : Are you implying that Ducharme might be relieved of HC duties if the team only makes it to the division finals?
 

Kriss E

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May 3, 2007
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I'm not QUITE sure what you mean here : Are you implying that Ducharme might be relieved of HC duties if the team only makes it to the division finals?
As it stands, he's the interim coach, so who knows. The general assumption though when he and Bouchard were hired was that whoever is the assistant GM here would eventually takeover as Head coach.
 
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Spearmint Rhino

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Sep 17, 2013
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At some point you need to break the Einstein Insanity Loop and bring in something different, the only difference between Martin, Therrien, and Julien was, um, err, ah

Line Please?
 

Hostile Offer

Artist formerly known as Eagle Peninsula
Jun 17, 2017
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I don't feel like he's going to make a ton of changes on the lines and their usage but I surely hope he and whoever is running the PP have more tricks in their pockets than Julien and Muller when it comes to the systems.
 
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Runner77

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I was surprised there wasn't a thread on him already.

Surprised? How could you be surprised, the news only came out yesterday.

We had 3 threads about him, where all the questions in your OP were hammered to death, including links and analysis provided.

Why not just say you wanted a dedicated thread and do away with the surprise angle. We get it, you wanted to start your own thread about him. The best surprise, as Holiday Inn used to say, is "no surprise."

That said, welcome again and again and again and again, Dom. :)
 
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Grate n Colorful Oz

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Jun 12, 2007
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Surprised? How could you be surprised, the news only came out yesterday.

We had 3 threads about him, where all the questions in your OP were hammered to death, including links and analysis provided.

Why not just say you wanted a dedicated thread and do away with the surprise angle. We get it, you wanted to start your own thread about him. The best surprise, as Holiday Inn used to say, is "no surprise."

That said, welcome again and again and again and again, Dom. :)

I think he meant no threads prior to his hiring as interim. Like the regular ongoing player and staff threads, like the Timmins thread, Muller thread or Bergevin thread.
 
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Runner77

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I think he meant no threads prior to his hiring as interim. Like the regular ongoing player and staff threads, like the Timmins thread, Muller thread or Bergevin thread.

I was being facetious -- I know he meant that. :cool:
 
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