Montreal Canadiens: Dominique Ducharme May Miss Game 3
The Montreal Canadiens have been dealing with a handful of injuries in their third round matchup with the Vegas Golden Knights. Jeff Petry, Jon Merrill and Jake Evans missed Game 1, while Shea Weber took a nasty slash that looked like it would slow him down.
It turns out, the skaters are not the only ones that could miss a game in this series.
The Canadiens announced earlier today that there was an “irregularity” in the test results from head coach Dominique Ducharme’s Covid-19 test today. He was sent home and missed his scheduled meeting with the media as he has to isolate until further notice.
That might not take very long. Ducharme, along with the rest of the team members have been fully vaccinated, receiving both doses of their vaccine weeks ago. An irregularity could mean that the test came back inconclusive or that it was positive, but that would likely mean a false positive since he is already fully vaccinated.
This same thing happened to Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar on the morning of Game 6 in the second round. The Avalanche were also set to face the Golden Knights that evening, and Bednar took another test that came back negative and he was allowed to step behind the bench that night.
Hopefully, the same happens for Ducharme tonight. He will have to take another test and if it comes back negative he should still be allowed to take his usual spot on the team’s bench at the Bell Centre for a pivotal Game 3 matchup with Vegas.
If not, and he is not allowed to coach, that would leave assistant’s Alex Burrows and Luke Richardson as the men in charge.
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The Canadiens faced a similar dilemma in last year’s playoffs when Claude Julien was hospitalized in the middle of the qualifying round series with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Thankfully he recovered from a heart irregularity, and the team performed well on the ice by taking out the Penguins in four games.