{"id":125266,"date":"2022-02-09T15:07:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-09T20:07:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=125266"},"modified":"2022-02-09T16:43:37","modified_gmt":"2022-02-09T21:43:37","slug":"dominique-ducharme-fired-montreal-canadiens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/02\/09\/dominique-ducharme-fired-montreal-canadiens\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Canadiens Fire Head Coach Dominique Ducharme"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"firstHeading\" class=\"firstHeading mw-first-heading\">Dominique Ducharme has been fired as head coach of the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2022\/02\/09\/nhl-rumours-canadiens-golden-knights-predators\/\" target=\"_self\">Montreal Canadiens<\/a>. Former NHL player <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/s\/stlouma01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Martin St. Louis<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanadiensMTL\/status\/1491527207440822281?s=20&amp;t=fNIkq7E79SFncocE4rasqA\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has been hired as their new interim Head Coach<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Dominique Ducharme has been relieved of his head coaching duties.<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/wSdkwrOMXC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">https:\/\/t.co\/wSdkwrOMXC<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@CanadiensMTL) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CanadiensMTL\/status\/1491499112885366785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 9, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Canadiens Head Coach Dominique Ducharme Fired<\/h2>\n<p>With only eight wins on the season through 44 games, general manager Kent Hughes has relieved Dominique Ducharme of his duties.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Hearing the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Habs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Habs<\/a> have fired coach Dominique Ducharme. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DailyFaceoff?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@DailyFaceoff<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/frank_seravalli\/status\/1491496865073877000?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 9, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s been a miserable season for the Stanley Cup finalists. After being expelled by the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/category\/lightning\/\" target=\"_self\">Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> in five games, the Canadiens have failed to replicate the type of on-ice play that marched them to an improbable run to the Finals.<\/p>\n<p>Dominique Ducharme was hired as an assistant coach for Montreal back in 2018. Three years later he was promoted to interim head coach, after the firings to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/j\/juliecl01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Claude Julien<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/m\/mulleki01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kirk Muller<\/a>. Ducharme would lead the Canadiens to their first Stanley Cup appearance since they won it all back in 1993.<\/p>\n<p>Ducharme would be awarded for his efforts shortly after. On July 13, 2021, he&#8217;d be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/07\/13\/montreal-canadiens-extend-dominique-ducharme\/\" target=\"_self\">formally named the 31st head coach<\/a> in the franchise&#8217;s history and would <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2021\/07\/13\/montreal-canadiens-extend-dominique-ducharme\/\" target=\"_self\">sign a three-year extension<\/a>. His tenure was short-lived, however, as just 44 games into the season, Dominique Ducharme has been shown the door.<\/p>\n<h3>Is Ducharme to Blame, or a Victim of Circumstance?<\/h3>\n<p>As for how much of the Canadien&#8217;s abysmal play should be shouldered by their coach is up for debate. Coming into the 2021-22 season the Canadiens were informed they&#8217;d be playing without star goalie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/p\/priceca01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carey Price<\/a>, whose efforts in the postseason willed the team to the Final. Then came the unfortunate news that veteran, star defenceman, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/w\/webersh01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Shea Weber<\/a>, would likely have to hang up the skates due to injury.<\/p>\n<p>These were massive blows to the roster, and one doesn&#8217;t fill the holes left by their absence easily.<\/p>\n<p>Still, the Canadiens tried. But a five-game losing streak to start the year did nothing to ease the minds of its fans. Montreal has failed to record back-to-back wins this season and has had losing streaks of four or more games, on five separate occasions thus far.<\/p>\n<p>Whether the demise of the Canadiens is Ducharme&#8217;s to bear or not, a shake-up behind the bench was needed. The status of assistant coaches Alex Burrows, \u00c9ric Gravel, Mario Leblanc, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/l\/letowtr01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Trevor Letowski<\/a>, \u00c9ric Raymond, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hockey-reference.com\/players\/r\/richalu01.html?utm_campaign=Linker&amp;utm_source=direct&amp;utm_medium=linker-\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Luke Richardson<\/a> remains unchanged.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<br \/>\n<a id=\"ktY2UQplTBh2ogg44Kgu5Q\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1369609644\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'ktY2UQplTBh2ogg44Kgu5Q',sig:'mPEq8XIDSQ0mxC1kUYnDGa_c3-s_oFGH18fbYDw797E=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1369609644',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dominique Ducharme has been fired as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens. Former NHL player Martin St. Louis has been hired as their new interim Head Coach. Dominique Ducharme has been relieved of his head coaching duties.https:\/\/t.co\/wSdkwrOMXC \u2014 Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@CanadiensMTL) February 9, 2022 Canadiens Head Coach Dominique Ducharme Fired With only eight wins on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3976,"featured_media":125270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4547,34,4548],"tags":[3248],"class_list":["post-125266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-canadiens","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","tag-dominique-ducharme"],"modified_by":"Luiza Vidal, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3976"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}