Reports: Montreal Canadiens fire Dominique Ducharme
Anthony Scultore
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Multiple reports are breaking this afternoon that the Montreal Canadiens have fired head coach Dominique Ducharme.
The move is a bit surprising, but not totally unexpected after another terrible loss on Tuesday evening. Montreal was handed a 7-1 defeat by the New Jersey Devils to which forward Josh Anderson said, “I feel embarrassed.”
Canadiens fire Dominique Ducharme
The Montreal Canadiens named Ducharme their permanent head coach in July after he led the team to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 1993.
Ducharme was named interim head coach on Feb. 24, 2021, following the dismissal of Claude Julien. After the unexpected run through the playoffs, the franchise rewarded Ducharme with a three-year contract extension through the 2023-24 season.
When Jeff Gorton was hired to run Hockey Ops, he said that he did not foresee an in-season coaching change. That paradigm shifted when he brought in Kent Hughes as the new GM.
“Dom’s the coach of this team, and again, arriving here today with … I haven’t had a lot of opportunity to think about everything,” said Hughes. “I certainly have beliefs about what a modern-day coach should be or have in terms of qualities, and I’m anxious to speak to Dom and learn more about him, and ultimately, we’ll see where things take us from there.”
Apparently, Hughes has seen enough. It is expected that assistant coach Luke Richardson will take over for the rest of this season.
“We would like to sincerely thank Dominique for his work and contributions to the Montreal Canadiens organization. At this point in the season, we felt it was in the best interest of the club to make a change,” said Hughes.
Montreal Canadiens
Ducharme finishes his tenure as Canadiens coach with a record of 23-46-14. A brief stint indeed, but no one can take away his magical Cup run last season.
