Montreal Canadiens: Three Lineup Tweaks Dom Ducharme Must Make Now

Montreal Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin somewhat surprisingly fired his head coach and assistant last week. Out the door are Claude Julien and Kirk Muller, and Dom Ducharme was promoted to top duties on the bench.

The changes were announced on Wednesday, and the Habs next game was Thursday night in Winnipeg against the Jets. They played the Jets again on Saturday night.

The Canadiens lost Ducharme’s head coaching debut by a 6-3 score, blowing a 2-0 first period lead in the process. They also lost on Saturday night but it was a much better effort as they outshot the Jets 41-21 on their home ice and secured a point before losing 2-1 in overtime.

There wasn’t much time for Ducharme to institute wholesale changes to his lineup with such little time off before his first game. Their first chance to take a dee breath and go over some tactics would be today. The team would have flown home after their game Saturday night and don’t play again until tomorrow night at home against the Ottawa Senators.

Two days off in a row doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but the Canadiens won’t have consecutive days off between games again until April 17th and 18th. After that, it only happens one more time when the team goes three days between games from May 4th – 6th.

That means today and yesterday were the biggest opportunity that Ducharme and his staff, which now includes Alex Burrows, have to set this roster up to be the best team it can be for the final 36 games of the regular season.

With the Ottawa Senators, Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames struggling, the Habs have a great chance to make the playoffs this season. What can Ducharme do to ensure they can accomplish that?

Let’s take a look at the three lineup tweaks he can make to get the most out of this current roster.