Montreal Canadiens: Dom Ducharme Finds New Home Behind NHL Bench

The Montreal Canadiens made a surprise run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2021. It was an odd season as the team played in an All-Canadian Division all year, exploded out of the gates, struggled for a long period of time, then got things rolling again in the postseason.

Well, they didn’t immediately get rolling in the postseason as they fell behind the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-1 before storming back to win the series in seven. A lot of that was thanks to overtime goals scored by Nick Suzuki and Jesperi Kotkaniemi in Game 5 and 6, as well as outstanding goaltending from Carey Price.

Along the way, during one of their losing streaks, the team fired head coach Claude Julien. His assistant at the time, Dom Ducharme, took over as the team’s head coach but it didn’t result in immediate success. The team had a 15-16-7 record after Ducharme took over and it appeared the “interim” tag would never be removed from his title and the team would begin a search for a permanent head coach in the offseason.

Then came the wild run to the Stanley Cup Final where all four lines were clicking. After falling behind 3-1 to the Maple Leafs, the Habs won three in a row to move on to round two and then swept the Winnipeg Jets in four straight games to extend their winning streak to seven games.

The Canadiens lost Game 1 to the Vegas Golden Knights in round three but would go on to win the series in six games. They ultimately lost the Stanley Cup Final in five games to the Tampa Bay Lightning, but the long, unexpected playoff run was enough to ensure Ducharme stayed behind the bench.

That of course did not last long. The Canadiens were awful coming out of the gate the following season and reached the midway point of the season with eight wins. They were without franchise cornerstones Carey Price and Shea Weber, but the time had come to change something up and it would be Ducharme on the receiving end.

After 45 games, and with the team sitting last in the NHL with an 8-30-7 record, Ducharme was relieved of his duties and replaced by Martin St. Louis. Since then, we have not heard much from Ducharme, but he has resurfaced.

After taking all of last season off, the former Habs bench boss is heading to Vegas where he will try and help the Golden Knights repeat as Stanley Cup champions. Ducharme, as well as Joel Ward, were named assistants to head coach Bruce Cassidy.

The Canadiens will travel to Vegas on October 30th and the Golden Knights will be in Montreal on November 16th as Ducharme will make the return to his home province. The native of Joliette, Quebec helped steer an unlikely team to the Canadiens only Stanley Cup Final appearance in the past 30 years.

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