Canadiens Management Gets Called Out Big Time By Former Head Coach

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S. Harper
July 29, 2022 (0:06)

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After making the Stanley Cup final the previous year the Montreal Canadiens would have their worst season in franchise history finishing dead last in the entire league.

Despite many Injures when you fail that bad your going to obviously expect changes, Especially in Montreal where hockey is almost a religion.

Former Montreal Canadiens head coach Dominique Ducharme has broken his silence and he did not hold back on his thoughts regarding Canadiens executive vice president Jeff Gorton and general manager Kent Hughes after being replaced back on February 9th for new head coach Martin St Louis.

In an exclusive interview with the Athletic Ducharme would reveal his frustration with the Canadiens new management regime, feeling like he wasn't included in the teams plans once Jeff Gorton was hired as the Canadiens new Executive President.

«That's the side of it that hurts, or that's most disappointing to me, is not having the chance to sit down with them to tell them how I saw hockey,» Dominique Ducharme told Marc Antoine Godin of The Athletic. «If the plan was to lose the most games we could and to play the young players, I would have liked to have known because I would have had a different approach with them. I was trying to squeeze as much as I could everywhere to try and get some results. I saw teams that had games cancelled because five of their players had COVID. We had 10, and another eight who were injured, and we still played.»

According to Ducharme, one of the topics he really felt left out on was how he was expected to work on the development of the Canadiens young star Cole Caufield.

Caufield would rocket into the NHL playing along side of Nick Suzuki just before the 2020-21 playoffs and was the odds of favorite to win the Calder trophy this season. Unfortunately for the Canadiens and Ducharme, Caufield struggled scoring just one goal in 30 games under Ducharme Caufield was assigned to the Laval Rocket a month into season.

The part that had to feel tough for Ducharme to watch after being fired, Cole turned back into "Goal" Caufield putting up 35 points in 37 games under St. Louis, including 22 goals in the final 35 games.

Ducharme would take the blame from media and fans who blamed Caufield's struggles on how he was used by Ducharme who seemed more to like using his veteran players more. People believe if St. Louis was the coach open night things would of been different.

"Hearing that sucks," Ducharme said. "Everyone was saying he would score 40 goals before the season even began. If he'd had a good start, he could have done it, but he got stuck in a spiral and the fact the team was struggling didn't help him individually. When I hear things like that, it's as if I didn't want Cole to score 40 goals? I would have loved it if Cole scored 40 goals!"

Ducharme's would also say he felt of he wasn't giving the same green light as St. Louis to give that green light to the young Canadien players.

"We were always seen as the team that went to the Stanley Cup Final and that couldn't win,» Ducharme said. «The coaching change sent a message to the fans and the players that �we're rebuilding, we're going to put our faith in the young players.' The result was no longer important, Martin could talk about moral victories. Me, if I talked about moral victories, I would get ripped."

- Dominique Ducharme

Credit:Habs Fanatics.com