Dominique Ducharme confirms a big rumor and reveals his intentions

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Jeff Drouin
July 29, 2022 (4:33 PM)

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As we finish unpacking Dominique Ducharme's lengthy, generous and interesting interview with Marc Antoine Godin of The Athletic in full, we get a better idea of the future plans for the man who is now the former head coach of the Montreal Canadiens.

In this series of articles, Ducharme spoke out about the next captain, among other things:

He also gave his opinion on the Cole Caufield file:

Finally, he confirmed a big rumor that had been circulating since last February, as reported by our colleagues at GoHabsGo.com.

Indeed, as surprising as it may seem, Ducharme was never met by the CH's new staff before he was fired.

Revelations from the excellent Martin Leclerc (Radio-Canada):

"He was completely abandoned by the new management from day one! There are people well aware of the situation who told me that his new bosses have never even sat down with him since they arrived. [...] They let him take the ball, one after the other, and then play with incomplete lineups, with the 3rd and 4th... even 5th goalie. When the new management came in, he was dead before it started!"

That says a lot! And this week, Ducharme seemed to confirm it all :

"That's the part that hurts me, or disappoints me the most, that I didn't get a chance to sit down with them and tell them how I saw hockey. If the plan was to lose as many games as possible and have the young guys play, I would have liked that to know because I would have taken a different approach with them. I was trying to squeeze everywhere to get some results. I would see teams that had games cancelled because five of their players had COVID. We had ten, plus eight others who were injured, and we still played ..." - Dominique Ducharme

If he could have had a good meeting with his new bosses, he would have adjusted and things would have been very different. He never got his chance and that's what's unfortunate.

Now that all that is settled and in the past, as for his future in the hockey world, Ducharme has mentioned that he wants to get back behind the bench. He is not closing the door on moving to Europe or coaching in the American league.

Credit and for details: The Athletic