Confirmed with Link: Ducharme Fired! Next Head Coach Will Be Announced Later Today

[bobholly39]

Again speaks to how bad Bergevin was. Gives the coach an extension. Coach is gone that season. Ducharme might have been the worst Habs coach I've seen.

I dunno. I don't see it that way in regards to Bergevin:

1. Julien needed to go. We were ~middle of the road with him, and it just wasn't going anywhere years in the making. Gutsy move from Bergevin to fire him mid-year, but I loved it. Bergevin had always been way too passive, so I was glad to see this happen.

2. I think when they hired Ducharme, the intent was probably interim coach and re-assess later. As in - in the off-season, go find the absolute best coach possible. Again - I'm fine with that strategy, a lot of teams do that. We're doing that right now with MSL.

3. We made the finals? How can you not give your coach an extension after making the finals?

I think the way circumstances unfolded kind of forced our hand. We did so good in the playoffs - and yes Carey Price was magnificent, but team as a whole played fantastic (no PK for so many games in a row, NHL record, no falling behind in ~7 straight games, also close to NHL record, etc). It makes absolutely no sense to not give the coach an extension in that case.

So - I'm honestly fine with how all of it unfolded.

The one huge caveat for me was always - when things crash and burn as horribly bad as they have this year - well I don't care if he has a 3 year contract or not, fire him and move on. So - I'm glad they finally did, and they should have done so sooner.

 

[Habs Icing]

As I said before, interim makes a lot of sense. They don't care about being good, but they care about effort. MSL will murder guys for half assing it and no one on the roster would be able to look him in the eye and challenge him because he's achieved more than any of them likely will.

Well, that's one reason they can't look him in the eye. Not the first reason that would pop into my mind.

 

[xposbrad]

He absolutely had to be fired. It's completely horrible how bad we've been this year. There's tanking/sucking - and then there's being so ridiculously bad you kill every player's confidence for years to come. A change was desperately needed, and I'm glad it finally happened

That's how you tank, being so ridiculously bad. Would you rather we were in 8th to last right now with no chance at even a top 5? If anything, Duch was doing exactly what we needed. I still don't see the reason why we are firing our HC when we are clearly one of the worst teams and on our way to possibly 1st overall. The next two years, that has to be the goal. Being so bad we are bottom 3 and have a shot for #1.

 

[swimmer77]

I'm probably in the minority. I was really hoping Dom Ducharme would find success. And I guess he did. LOL Hoping the guy gets another chance elsewhere. Won't argue it was time for him to go but at the same time I'm not sure how you can fairly grade him with this roster and other circumstances. And as much as I hear the kids have suffered, Romanov has looked pretty good IMHO,

The biggest disappointment of the season for me and possibly a big influence on the kids would be Jeff Petry. He has been horrid and you can't convince me alleged poor coaching wiped out his skill and mental toughness. Hard to believe he comes from the ilk of an MLB pitcher if that is the case.

Good luck, Dom!

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Dom had one hell of a punchable face, he did ok in his time here but man he stunk it up so bad this year

 

[bobholly39]

That's how you tank, being so ridiculously bad. Would you rather we were in 8th to last right now with no chance at even a top 5? If anything, Duch was doing exactly what we needed. I still don't see the reason why we are firing our HC when we are clearly one of the worst teams and on our way to possibly 1st overall. The next two years, that has to be the goal. Being so bad we are bottom 3 and have a shot for #1.

But all of our young guys are having horrid seasons. This is the type of season that can leave long-lasting negative effects.

Caufield should be in contention for rookie of the year, as a goal-scorer, and has 1 goal. His confidence is completely shot.
Suzuki has 5 goals and 13 points in his last 30 games. That's a pace of 13 goals and 35 points over 82 games. This is a guy who we want to build up as our franchise C, want him to gain in confidence and get better and better. That's horrible.

There are ways to tank while still developing and protecting your top players.

This season - we're going to finish bottom 3 regardless. So we'll have a shot at #1.
Next season? There's no way Ducharme was coming back next year anyways, so it's a moot point. Also - us finishing bottom 3 or not next season has a lot less to do with coach and a lot more to do with Carey Price. If Carey Price returns and plays all of next year, we definitely aren't finishing bottom 3.

 

[rik schau]

I for one am pleased they let the scapegoat go. How it translates with the new bench boss is yet to be seen, although it should be rather obvious immediately if there is a new directive in place.

 

[Vachon23]

 

[Adam Michaels]

Zegras knows Caufield probably didn't like the way Ducharme has been using him.


Now would he like it if Torts ends up joining the Habs as Assistant Coach with Marty?

 

[Hansem1979]

Let's again all rejoice in the departure of the worst coach in Habs' history.

One more time!

Yeah, the sad part is a bad coach is what we needed... for 4-5 years to build up our non-existent talent pool. Now that we are seeing that Suzuki is a bit above average only and that Caufield and Romanov are just average or below average, we are completely devoid of talent.

A team that has a modicum of talent is not 32nd in the NHL, this team is probably the worse in NHL history, even when all players are healthy. We drastically need a few top 10 superstars like the Lightning or the Avalanche have done. They know how to build a team.

 

[Revansky]

Molson-Coors is owned by his brother Andrew, he is no equity in it, the rest is owned by the public as it's a publicly traded company. The feud between Geoff and the rest of his family is quite known in Montreal. They want nothing to do with him.

You seem to be right on the Molson-Coors front, my bad. Still he owns Spectra and Evenko (which should get back to making money soon) and his networth is evaluated at 1.75 B $. I'm sure he has enough money to withstand a 12 M $ dollars lost and a couple of less profitable seasons.

 

[jaffy27]

Why not Patrick Roy. They are afraid of him, a real leader.

Seems everyone is afraid of him…ask Sakic!!!

 

[expy]

Was it just me, or did they not thank Ducharme for his services today. lol

 

[FloJack]

Was it just me, or did they not thank Ducharme for his services today. lol

Gorton did.

 

[Ezpz]

Tanking doesn't mean having to lose every single game by 4-5 goals. We've been on the receiving end of some blowouts too frequently without any players progressing. Truth is Ducharme never should have been extended as head coach. The team played better under Richardson in the playoffs and fell flat when Ducharme returned.

 

[expy]

Gorton did.

Ah, must've missed it. Yay for me.

 

[Angler]

Well, do you recall the team we had at the beginning of the 2000's, we are way worse than they were and the attendance weren't good at all, 10-12k per game if my memory serves me correctly.

Your memory does not serve you correctly.

Montreal Canadiens [NHL] yearly attendance at hockeydb.com

There was a dip, but to say they only had 12000 people at a game is incorrect. This site shows the average yearly attendance for the Habs. Since they built the new arena, they have never averaged less than 20000 fans per game... Not counting the covid years of course...

 

[sheed36]

I guess EJ Hradek didn't think Dom was a very good coach either. He had a few people call him out on his tweet including Seravalli and others. Some interesting back and forth on his twitter about this.



Hradek issued an apology today for his comments.

 

[expy]

Guess it wasn't only Hab players that didn't like him.

 

[expy]

I guess EJ Hradek didn't think Dom was a very good coach either. He had a few people call him out on his tweet including Seravalli and others. Some interesting back and forth on his twitter about this.



Hradek issued an apology today for his comments.

He didn't have to apologize, he wasn't wrong.

 

[1909]

He didn't have to apologize, he wasn't wrong.

He wasn't right, either.

 

[Fish on The Sand]

Or it could be Hurricanes hiring Brind'Amour levels of good, no one knows.

Brind'Amour had almost a decade of coaching experience before becoming head coach. Tonight was MSL's first taste of coaching experience at any meaningful level of hockey.

 

[Fish on The Sand]

Yes cause we all know you can see what happens in the future.

Typically when you hire somebody into a line of work they don't have any experience in they fail miserably.

Gretzky as coach is but one example.

 

[Leon Lucius Black]

Typically when you hire somebody into a line of work they don't have any experience in they fail miserably.

Gretzky as coach is but one example.

As great as Gretzky was as a player he is boring as **** to listen to and it wasn't a surprise that he wasn't a great motivator as coach.

Veteran players play a similar role to assistant coaches. They are there helping other teammates, talking to them and pointing things out all the time to help them improve. A hockey player with over 1000 games experience and who's won a cup knows what it takes to motivate players and what it takes to be successful, they also have already gained a ton of valuable experience behind the behind.

It is like any other work environment, you'll have employees and management.. some employees will learn from experience what needs to be done to run things and end up getting promoted to management. MSL has gained his experience, now he's in a role where he's managing the players behind the bench. This isn't like we hired a random school teacher/lawyer/accountant and threw them behind the bench, we hired a guy who's been on NHL benches for 2 decades.

The NHL has been based on recycling management and coaches for years where everyone thinks coaches need like 5-10 years of experience somewhere before getting a sniff at being an NHL coach. A lot of teams have had no success due to this, teams like us and Edmonton have kept hiring dinosaur coaches and having old boys clubs as management instead of being progressive and trying to change things up that haven't been working.

I won't be surprised to start seeing more former NHL players move directly into head coaching roles over the next few years.

 

[Adam Michaels]