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Dominique Ducharme’s tenure will have been a short and tumultuous one at the helm of the Montreal Canadiens. His point percentage in 83 games was .361 in the regular season and .591 in 22 playoffs games. As I’ve said often, I strongly believe that Ducharme landed a contract extension thanks to a cup run fueled by the sheer will of veterans to get Price and Weber a cup before it was too late. When Geoff Molson decided to clean house upstairs, Ducharme was retained, and Jeff Gorton had said he would finish the season, but the latest developments had made that option impossible.
Clearly, Dominique Ducharme had lost the room. Jeff Petry questioned his systems week ago and last night, Josh Anderson made it clear that the Canadiens’ players didn’t enjoy playing hockey anymore and that the climate had become toxic. Furthermore, his usage of the organization’s young players was getting increasingly damaging and became inexcusable when the team started to get healthy. There was no reason to keep exposing Caufield and Primeau to this disaster of a season.
Who will take over? Well, Montreal’s new releases says that the assistants’ positions remain the same, which seems to indicate that none of them will take the helm on an interim basis. Normally, interim announcements are made in one swift motion with the firing, the Canadiens simply stated that Ducharme’s replacement will be announced in the next few hours.
Who will it be? Well, your guess is as good as mine, but I will say this: when he spoke about a modern-day coach, Kent Hughes said it had to be a leader, someone who would lead his team to war and that the players would respect. As an example, he mentioned Rod Brind’Amour in Carolina, an ex-player who is unanimously respected and even adulated by his players.
The first name that comes to mind when I write that description is Patrick Roy. I had my reservations on him as coach, I didn’t think he would play well with a VP of hockey ops, but as a coach? Roy is a proven winner who has coached in the league before, and he is a Montreal Canadiens’ legend. His number hangs in the rafters and he’s got the kind of temperament that would make it impossible for the players to mail it in for the rest of the season. You just know that Roy would not tolerate the lack of effort and commitment that the players have showed for much of the season. Plus, let’s face it, wouldn’t it make it at least interesting to see him fuming behind the bench as he tries to wake up our pampered millionaires? Maybe I’m just dreaming but I’m sure that would create a renewed interest in this gong show of a season.
Edit: Martin St-Louis has been named head coach of the Montreal Canadiens on an interim basis. He will be introduced to the media tomorrow at 11:30 AM along with Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes. So far, the decision has been met with mixed reactions to say the least.
If Martin St-Louis is indeed hired as the next coach of the Montreal Canadiens, the big question is who is going to take over as assistant with the Mid Fairfield U13 team? If this happens, the Habs will have literally hired a peewee coach. A peewee coach.
Montreal Canadiens Blogger • 
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