MONTREAL – With only 38 games remaining in the regular season and his hockey club not meeting expectations, general manager Marc Bergevin felt compelled to change things.
The separation of Claude Julien and Kirk Muller was not an easy decision, but Bergevin said it was necessary to put the Canadiens back on track before losing more ground in the Northern Division standings.
Enter interim head coach Dominique Ducharme and Alex Burrows, who are tasked with helping to repair the ship of a team that has been without wins in three consecutive games and has only two wins in the last eight matches.
“The effort has always been there. It proves that Claude hasn’t lost his locker room, but I saw a team that was lost, lacking in sense of direction,” said Bergevin via Zoom on Wednesday afternoon in Winnipeg. “These things happen in professional sports. The coaches continue to give instructions, but after a while, the message doesn’t get through. From what I saw last week and what happened last year, in a short season, I made the decision to make a change. “
Video: Marc Bergevin on changes in coaching staff
There were several specific shortcomings in the Canadiens’ overall game that prompted Bergevin to act without further ado.
Both power play and penalty kill, which are in 20th and 22nd place in the NHL, respectively, are the main concerns, as well as the team’s record below 3-5-0 at the Bell Center.
The fact that his players have accumulated the third highest number of penalty minutes in the League, behind Vancouver and Ottawa, also does not please him.
But the main point is that Bergevin no longer recognized the team that came out of the gates in mid-January, attacked opponents, scored at will and managed seven wins in their first 10 games.
“When we play at the top of our game, we are killing moves, we are moving the puck, we are supporting the puck, we are passing through the neutral zone with speed. It is when our team is at our best, and this was not happening now”, emphasized Bergevin . “The difficult thing to watch is the swing of being a really good hockey team that was playing with rhythm, was engaged and was playing with its identity, which is speed, and then going to the other side, where we were a team that was looking for We were chasing our tails, we were chasing the record, we were not in sync. That was frustrating for me. Sometimes you could blame the injuries, but we had none. “
Remember that the 55-year-old former defender set the bar even higher for this group when the training camp started, especially with the addition of seasoned veteran strikers Tyler Toffoli, Josh Anderson and Corey Perry, defender Joel Edmundsonand goalkeeper Jake Allen to share the workload with Carey Price.
It should come as no surprise, then, that Bergevin addressed the team in particular after Julien and Muller were relieved of their duties, and he basically placed on them the burden of returning to form under Ducharme’s leadership.
“I was clear. The barrier is high. I have confidence in them, but all players wearing the Montreal Canadiens uniform should give more,” insisted Bergevin. “I said that everyone here, for a man, needs to be better, needs to improve his game, each guy. That was my message. This is what needs to be done.”
Why Ducharme?
When Bergevin thought about installing a new bank chief, he was sold to Ducharme immediately.
Citing Joliette, 47, a modern approach and extensive QC native curriculum, Bergevin considered him the ideal candidate to take charge before an important two-game set against the Jets.
“With quarantine or without quarantine, Dom has been my guy since I made my decision. The reason is that he is a new model of coach, the young coach who has come a long way. He was successful at the junior level, he was successful at the World Junior level “, mentioned Bergevin.” I feel that the new voice is what this team needs, and he is also a good communicator. This is often what the players, I think, based on what I saw, are what they are looking for. “
Video: Dominique Ducharme in his new role
Hired as Montreal’s assistant coach in April 2018, Ducharme certainly has a good sense of where his troops’ heads are now, so he will start running on Thursday morning’s skateboard.
Undoubtedly, this familiarity will significantly speed up the adjustment process, which, hopefully, brings out the best in Canadiens at Bell MTS Place and beyond.
Bergevin is counting on that.
“I have a lot of confidence in Dominique and what he will bring to the team,” praised Bergevin, who confirmed that Ducharme would be in charge by the end of the season, before a decision on his status was officially taken. “I believe he will be able to bring our players to the level they were before, where we can be more consistent in the way we work.”