As the Montreal Canadiens staggered into the post-season, the reviews on their rookie head coach were lukewarm at best. While Dominique Ducharme had shown flashes of promise after assuming Claude Julien’s post, those flashes quickly fizzled as the Canadiens headed down a long, dark tunnel all too familiar to fans of the club over the last decade.
Four games into the first-round series with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ducharme’s fate seemed all but sealed. The interim bench boss had been criticized for scratching his younger players: Cole Caufield, Jesperi Kotkaniem, and Alexander Romanov. Related to this, Ducharme also was accused of a deferential preference for veterans like Eric Staal.