Is Ducharme Part of the Problem?

[habsask]

I have been thinking about this for some time so I thought that I would throw it out here to see what folks think.

Ducharme has been told he’s safe until the end of the season – fair enough. But…

I have always thought that a critical part of a coach’s job is to put his players into situations where they are likely to succeed, in other words what are they best at and adapt their role to use that talent.

It seems to me that the problem with Ducharme’s system is that it is very rigid. That has been exposed this season by the loss of Weber & Danault and the absence of Price.

So is he asking players to do things they’re not really that good at instead of what they are best at? I beginning to think so.

Am I an out-rider here or does the above make sense?

Be nice when attacking….I’m Old.

Cheers

[Cranky]

Ducharme didn't go stupid over 3 months.

The playoffs team was built solely oh hard defense and very good goaltending. That hard defense requires team wide acceptance and it requires serious effort and pain to implement. Take away that very good goaltending to where it is from hot garbage to adequate....and you break down that serious efforts to merely adequate to mail-in.

There is nothing Ducharme can do when he has 2nd, 3rd and peewee goaltending. Players are not battery operated machines where the battery is their desire. They have to buy into a system that gives them a chance to win and clearly they don't have the goaltending to do so. Nor are they the '75 Habs where they can match their 6 goals with our or 8.

Then add all kinds of injuries.

Or...keep firing people because it makes us feel better.

[Willie Dog]

I would agree wholeheartedly... but if he changes then we know it was because Berg... if not because Dom...

[Willie Dog]

Dec 7, 2021 17:47:17 GMT -5 habsask said:

I have been thinking about this for some time so I thought that I would throw it out here to see what folks think.

Ducharme has been told he’s safe until the end of the season – fair enough. But…

I have always thought that a critical part of a coach’s job is to put his players into situations where they are likely to succeed, in other words what are they best at and adapt their role to use that talent.

It seems to me that the problem with Ducharme’s system is that it is very rigid. That has been exposed this season by the loss of Weber & Danault and the absence of Price.

So is he asking players to do things they’re not really that good at instead of what they are best at? I beginning to think so.

Am I an out-rider here or does the above make sense?

Be nice when attacking….I’m Old.

Cheers

I would agree wholeheartedly... but if he changes then we know it was because Berg... if not because Dom...

[Skilly]

Dec 7, 2021 17:47:17 GMT -5 habsask said:

I have been thinking about this for some time so I thought that I would throw it out here to see what folks think.

Ducharme has been told he’s safe until the end of the season – fair enough. But…

I have always thought that a critical part of a coach’s job is to put his players into situations where they are likely to succeed, in other words what are they best at and adapt their role to use that talent.

It seems to me that the problem with Ducharme’s system is that it is very rigid. That has been exposed this season by the loss of Weber & Danault and the absence of Price.

So is he asking players to do things they’re not really that good at instead of what they are best at? I beginning to think so.

Am I an out-rider here or does the above make sense?

Be nice when attacking….I’m Old.

Cheers

Yes, Ducharme is and was a huge part of the problem.

And I agree with Cranky that he didn't go stupid over three month, ..he always was stupid

Last year, prior to the playoffs while trying to learn "the system", the Habs went 7-12-2 in their last 21 games. Over the entire season with Ducharme they were 15-16-7.

So why the playoff run? We'd all like to think they all finally bought in, and hard work paid off. But that's only a tiny part of the reason. In the playoffs they were consistently out shot and out chanced, So there wasn't a wonderful defensive awareness epiphany... quite simply, Carey Price stopped practically everything he could see and his bad goals (he gave up a lot in the regular season) went down.

Good coaches don't make the line up decisions Dom Dom made, Dumb Dumb ones do.

He might be safe until the end of this year, but that only because Gorton knows the Dom Dom is our best chance at Shane Wright

[habsask]

Dec 7, 2021 18:07:51 GMT -5 Cranky said:

Ducharme didn't go stupid over 3 months.

The playoffs team was built solely oh hard defense and very good goaltending. That hard defense requires team wide acceptance and it requires serious effort and pain to implement. Take away that very good goaltending to where it is from hot garbage to adequate....and you break down that serious efforts to merely adequate to mail-in.

There is nothing Ducharme can do when he has 2nd, 3rd and peewee goaltending. Players are not battery operated machines where the battery is their desire. They have to buy into a system that gives them a chance to win and clearly they don't have the goaltending to do so. Nor are they the '75 Habs where they can match their 6 goals with our or 8.

Then add all kinds of injuries.

Or...keep firing people because it makes us feel better.

Well, at the risk of bringing down your wrath upon me I beg to differ. From his system point of view he's lost 2 critical players permanently - Weber & Danault. As for Price who knows when he' be back - if ever. They were the 3 cogs that made that system work for a short period of time.

As for last season's result I would say it was in the neighborhood of a fluke. Besides losing 2, and maybe 3, of the key defensive players permanently consider the following:

1) they had a LOSING record! They were one of 6 teams that had 9 or more points from OT loses. Four did not make the playoffs, St Louis did but got swept in 4 in the first round. The Habs were the 6th and the stars aligned in a once in a lifetime constellation for the result. Other factors feeding into last season were...

2) the season was very short;

3) hence it was possible to play Ducharme's system for the end of the season & the playoffs. But to ask players to play that system effectively, without three key players who made it possible, for 82 games? It simply will not happen - players are human, they make mistakes. And players are not a machine that you just program. And the constant pressure to do so takes a toll - look at Price.

4) plus do you really expect to make the playoffs, with an 82 game season, by winning the large majority of the games by one goal? I don't.

5) yes I would agree players are not playing Ducharme's system rigidly - but maybe for some doing so is playing to their weaknesses and not to their strengths.

6) a last point. I think the players realize that Ducharme's system as the team is now constituted just will not work.

That's in essence what I am saying.

Then you have the reports that Ducharme has "lost the room" - well most except for the overpaid one's like Gallagher & some Dmen.

And getting Price back will not "solve" all of the problems.

If you look at the NFL their is not one playoff level coach who insists players play His system rigidly regardless of their various talents. The one's that do fail.

Best from this Old Geezer.

Cheers

[Bobs_HABit]

Dec 7, 2021 18:52:56 GMT -5 Skilly said:

Dec 7, 2021 17:47:17 GMT -5 habsask said:

I have been thinking about this for some time so I thought that I would throw it out here to see what folks think.

Ducharme has been told he’s safe until the end of the season – fair enough. But…

I have always thought that a critical part of a coach’s job is to put his players into situations where they are likely to succeed, in other words what are they best at and adapt their role to use that talent.

It seems to me that the problem with Ducharme’s system is that it is very rigid. That has been exposed this season by the loss of Weber & Danault and the absence of Price.

So is he asking players to do things they’re not really that good at instead of what they are best at? I beginning to think so.

Am I an out-rider here or does the above make sense?

Be nice when attacking….I’m Old.

Cheers

Yes, Ducharme is and was a huge part of the problem.

And I agree with Cranky that he didn't go stupid over three month, ..he always was stupid

Last year, prior to the playoffs while trying to learn "the system", the Habs went 7-12-2 in their last 21 games. Over the entire season with Ducharme they were 15-16-7.

So why the playoff run? We'd all like to think they all finally bought in, and hard work paid off. But that's only a tiny part of the reason. In the playoffs they were consistently out shot and out chanced, So there wasn't a wonderful defensive awareness epiphany... quite simply, Carey Price stopped practically everything he could see and his bad goals (he gave up a lot in the regular season) went down.

Good coaches don't make the line up decisions Dom Dom made, Dumb Dumb ones do.

He might be safe until the end of this year, but that only because Gorton knows the Dom Dom is our best chance at Shane Wright

Yep. We held out hope that Dom was going to a breathe of fresh air but instead not only has he been more of the same, he has probably been worse as it appears he has completely lost the room. No one seems to be improving under his watch. Sure Romanov appears to be getting more substantial minutes but yet he is still glued to the bench in OT for that offensive wizard Chariot.
I've been extremely disappointed in the Dom show as i think you said it best...he's always been stupid. He had a magical '12-'13 with Halifax but that was all the MacKinon/Drouin show and every subsequent year he was worse. Take that one season away and he's a .500 coach

[Cranky]

Dec 7, 2021 19:30:44 GMT -5 habsask said:

Dec 7, 2021 18:07:51 GMT -5 Cranky said:

Ducharme didn't go stupid over 3 months.

The playoffs team was built solely oh hard defense and very good goaltending. That hard defense requires team wide acceptance and it requires serious effort and pain to implement. Take away that very good goaltending to where it is from hot garbage to adequate....and you break down that serious efforts to merely adequate to mail-in.

There is nothing Ducharme can do when he has 2nd, 3rd and peewee goaltending. Players are not battery operated machines where the battery is their desire. They have to buy into a system that gives them a chance to win and clearly they don't have the goaltending to do so. Nor are they the '75 Habs where they can match their 6 goals with our or 8.

Then add all kinds of injuries.

Or...keep firing people because it makes us feel better.

Well, at the risk of breaking down your wrath upon me I beg to differ. From his system point of view he's lost 2 critical players permanently - Weber & Danault. As for Price who knows when he' be back - if ever. They were the 3 cogs that made that system work for a short period of time.

As for last season's result I would say it was in the neighborhood of a fluke. Besides losing 2, and maybe 3, of the key defensive players permanently consider the following:

1) they had a LOSING record! They were one of 6 teams that had 9 or more points from OT loses. Four did not make the playoffs, St Louis did but got swept in 4 in the first round. The Habs were the 6th and the stars aligned in a once in a lifetime constellation for the result. Other factors feeding into last season were...

2) the season was very short;

3) hence it was possible to play Ducharme's system for the end of the season & the playoffs. But to ask players to play that system effectively, without three key players who made it possible, for 82 games? It simply will not happen - players are human, they make mistakes. And players are not a machine that you just program. And the constant pressure to do so takes a toll - look at Price.

4) plus do you really expect to make the playoffs, with an 82 game season, by winning the large majority of the games by one goal? I don't.

5) yes I would agree players are not playing Ducharme's system rigidly - but maybe for some doing so is playing to their weaknesses and not to their strengths.

6) a last point. I think the players realize that Ducharme's system as the team is now constituted just will not work.

That's in essence what I am saying.

Then you have the reports that Ducharme has "lost the room" - well most except for the overpaid one's like Gallagher & some Dmen.

And getting Price back will not "solve" all of the problems.

If you look at the NFL their is not one playoff level coach who insists players play His system rigidly regardless of their various talents. The one's that do fail.

Best from this Old Geezer.

Cheers

Last year regular season is irrelevant. There was a surge of injuries including Price. It's the playoffs that count. Further, flukes don't appen several times over. They were full value for their wins.

The are two logical arguments against my post...

1. They lost key players

2. The level of play was not sustainable.

Counter to 1....the players they lost were keys and I expect a downgrade but Hoffman is a major offensive piece which was past of the original playing strategy of having 3 players play high and available for fast breakout. The side benefit was that the opposing defense would be cautious of going deep into our zone. Those three counterstrike players are CC, Hoff and Anderson. One is injured, one is finding his desire and one is trying but becoming a lone wolf.

The BIGGEST key is the loss of Price. More below...

Counter 2...level of play does not have to be playoff level sustainable simply because NO TEAM is going to have it either. Maybe a game here and there, but the Habs don't have to look like war refugees after every game.

About Price, he's the pin that broke and took everything down. Without the expectation of a mid NHL goal level performance and what is clearly hot garbage in nets in most games, no one should expect that a team has any confidence that the hard work that makes their system work is going to get results. So they "try",..but not really.

In your football world, you take a hard working team and substitute their pretty good quarterback for a high schooler, exactly how many games do you think the team is going line up ambulances to win?

The problem is that it's hard to quantify how much goaltending means to a team. The results of less then NHL level goaltending cascades.....from the block shot that didn't happen, from the extra effort that defenseman did not give, from the just a bit slower that forward didn't give to get back and give his defenseman an outlet pass....and from a hundred little plays thst didn't happen, leads to the goals that did happen.

On the other hand, that spectacular save is, well spectacular and nothing more. It doesn't make a backup goaltender into a mid level starter and those rebounds he shouldn't give up, those pucks he lost track of that land up in his net, that position that is 6 inches to the left and opened a gap, those are hard to quantify and remember...but not the end results. Coach can't fix hot garbage or talentless players.

All too often, we see that singular play that led to a goal and curse that player, including tar and feathers, but just before that play lays a series of plays that through effort and desire, simply DO NOT happen.

Soo....why can't the coach simply adjust. The exact same reason why an NFL football team can't adjust to a high school quarterback. The amount of talent needed to compensate for a critical position is far, far more then simply getting a better player for said position. You need to replace that key player and re-buy into the system.

Of fire the coach. It feels better.

[Disgruntled70sHab]

I'll be surprised if he's behind the bench next year ... allowing Dom Ducharme to finish the year behind the bench only buys Jeff Gorton some time to figure out what he wants to do ... I'm not trying to be gloomy, but I don't see Ducharme in the new-look Habs future ...

Cheers.

[The Habitual Fan]

I think that Ducharme is the biggest reason why the Habs are where they are. As mentioned, they were bad the last 20 games last year and have been bad all this year. The team has too much talent and skill to be this bad. His system clearly doesn't work and he has not adapted. This season is gone and I expect he will be too come spring.

What I would like Gorton to tell Duscharme is start playing the kids. I would have loved to have seen Romanov with Caulfield and Suzuki in OT the other night. Norlinder has played less than 2 minutes of PP time this season. Charoit has played plenty. Norlinder is a young offensive dman, get him on the PP.

[Willie Dog]

Dec 8, 2021 10:50:33 GMT -5 The Habitual Fan said:

I think that Ducharme is the biggest reason why the Habs are where they are. As mentioned, they were bad the last 20 games last year and have been bad all this year. The team has too much talent and skill to be this bad. His system clearly doesn't work and he has not adapted. This season is gone and I expect he will be too come spring.

What I would like Gorton to tell Duscharme is start playing the kids. I would have loved to have seen Romanov with Caulfield and Suzuki in OT the other night. Norlinder has played less than 2 minutes of PP time this season. Charoit has played plenty. Norlinder is a young offensive dman, get him on the PP.

The only reason to highlight the vets is for trade purposes...

This guy blames Ducharme's system and line blending

awinninghabit.com/2021/12/07/montreal-canadines-house-half-cleaned/

[Boston_Habs]

I never thought the X's and O's mattered THAT much, but it seems that the players just couldn't deal with Ducharme's system. I think they were mostly playing Julien's system after Ducharme took over and in the playoffs until he blew things up this year. I don't see how he can survive what looks to be a massive f&ck up.

[seventeen]

Dec 8, 2021 10:50:33 GMT -5 The Habitual Fan said:

I think that Ducharme is the biggest reason why the Habs are where they are. As mentioned, they were bad the last 20 games last year and have been bad all this year. The team has too much talent and skill to be this bad. His system clearly doesn't work and he has not adapted. This season is gone and I expect he will be too come spring.

What I would like Gorton to tell Duscharme is start playing the kids. I would have loved to have seen Romanov with Caulfield and Suzuki in OT the other night. Norlinder has played less than 2 minutes of PP time this season. Charoit has played plenty. Norlinder is a young offensive dman, get him on the PP.

Does it? They have a guy at #1 centre who is pretty good, but may not be a #1 centre quite yet. He looks it some games and isn't productive in others. Their #2 centre is (once again) a #3 centre on a good team. I won't go into detail on the rest, but the defence isn't NHL average, even if Weber was there and at 36 with a bad ankle/knee (probably needing hip replacement in a year...ok I'm exagerrating but you get the drift) he would not be Mr. Playoff like he was, loaded up with pain killers.

This is where many fans and I digress. I don't think the talent level is there. No, they are not THIS bad, but neither are they good enough to make the playoffs. They are, again, an 86 point team. They have proved it over and over, regardless of the reasons we might give for it. They are their record and I'll take their record over 56 games and 82 games, ahead of any 22 game sample where Price plays like 2014. I hate think how many points they would have gotten if they'd played another 34 games in the playoffs. Price and Weber could not have kept it up.

Of course they're better than a 50 point team, but all the issues they've faced still means they'd have to make up 36 points to get back to that 86 point team.

[Cranky]

Worst coach EVER!

How come he can't compensate for the missing players? If he was good, he would know would follow my brilliant advice I dispense from my easy chair....

Christian Dvorak, LW, Day-To-Day

Tyler Toffoli, RW, *updated to IR

Joel Armia, RW, Day-to-Day

Jeff Petry, D, Day-to-Day

Sami Niku, D, Day-to-Day

Brendan Gallagher, RW, Day-to-Day

Josh Anderson, RW, Day-To-Day

Joel Edmundson, D, Week-to-Week

Paul Byron, RW, Indefinitely

Carey Price, G, Indefinitely

Shea Weber, D, Indefinitely

Obviously the solution is a new coach. And 6 more waiting behind him because I KNOW better then all of them.

[Disgruntled70sHab]

[seventeen]

Good find, Dis. What is disturbing, of course, is Ducharme's judgment in the scenario Weise describes. For those without the time to watch it, Weise postulates (probably correctly), that Ducharme is not lasting past this year, so he's trying to win as much as possible to prove he's a good coach, to cement his next job. (Buzzer sound). In Ducharme's mind that means using veteran players. That's foolish because

a) he's not winning with the vets anyway
b) if he accepted that he'll have a losing record, he could play the kids, work with them, try to make them better and maybe have a better record the last 10 games, while positioning himself as a team guy by developing the kids.

Would Option b) not look better on his resume than) "I put everything I had into that season and ended up with a .300 record (50 points)". That would certainly leave an impression on me as an owner or GM of another franchise. (Buzzer sound).

In fact, I'd downgrade him if he didn't play the kids. He's being forced to in some respects because of the injury list (Notice I didn't say actual injuries? ) but playing the kids is not of his choosing. Paquette? Really? Why not bring up Vejdemo?  Perreault played more than Caufield and Poehling.  Four defensemen (Clague, Chiarot, Savard and Kulak) played more than arguably Montreal's best D-man, Romanov.  If I was scouting, looking for coaches, that would immediately have me scratching Ducharme off my list.  Or writing "idiot" next to his name. 

None of that makes sense, so I think he's doing himself a huge disservice with whatever strategy or judgment he is using. 

[The Habitual Fan]

Dec 8, 2021 13:02:26 GMT -5 seventeen said:

Dec 8, 2021 10:50:33 GMT -5 The Habitual Fan said:

I think that Ducharme is the biggest reason why the Habs are where they are. As mentioned, they were bad the last 20 games last year and have been bad all this year. The team has too much talent and skill to be this bad. His system clearly doesn't work and he has not adapted. This season is gone and I expect he will be too come spring.

What I would like Gorton to tell Duscharme is start playing the kids. I would have loved to have seen Romanov with Caulfield and Suzuki in OT the other night. Norlinder has played less than 2 minutes of PP time this season. Charoit has played plenty. Norlinder is a young offensive dman, get him on the PP.

Does it? They have a guy at #1 centre who is pretty good, but may not be a #1 centre quite yet. He looks it some games and isn't productive in others. Their #2 centre is (once again) a #3 centre on a good team. I won't go into detail on the rest, but the defence isn't NHL average, even if Weber was there and at 36 with a bad ankle/knee (probably needing hip replacement in a year...ok I'm exagerrating but you get the drift) he would not be Mr. Playoff like he was, loaded up with pain killers.

This is where many fans and I digress. I don't think the talent level is there. No, they are not THIS bad, but neither are they good enough to make the playoffs. They are, again, an 86 point team. They have proved it over and over, regardless of the reasons we might give for it. They are their record and I'll take their record over 56 games and 82 games, ahead of any 22 game sample where Price plays like 2014. I hate think how many points they would have gotten if they'd played another 34 games in the playoffs. Price and Weber could not have kept it up.

Of course they're better than a 50 point team, but all the issues they've faced still means they'd have to make up 36 points to get back to that 86 point team.

Yes I do believe they have too much skill to be this bad. But that is just my opinion.
Obviously the injuries are a big factor in this year but I think that Duscharme's system might work if you have a full team and set lines. They haven't had either and you can't expect guys to play such a tight system when they are playing out of position with different linemates frequently. The problem I see with Duscharme is he is not able to adapt his plan based on the guys he has, especially when they give up the first goal.
I believe that if you didn't have a coach and just threw 5 guys over the boards to play shinny style then they would have just as many wins as they have now, and the games would be more entertaining.

[Skilly]

Dec 9, 2021 7:50:59 GMT -5 The Habitual Fan said:

Duscharme's system might work if you have a full team and set lines. They haven't had either and you can't expect guys to play such a tight system when they are playing out of position with different linemates frequently.

Sooooo, KK-kinitis is not fake news?

[The Habitual Fan]

Dec 9, 2021 12:33:33 GMT -5 Skilly said:

Dec 9, 2021 7:50:59 GMT -5 The Habitual Fan said:

Duscharme's system might work if you have a full team and set lines. They haven't had either and you can't expect guys to play such a tight system when they are playing out of position with different linemates frequently.

Sooooo, KK-kinitis is not fake news?

The disease that gives you 8 points in 24 games no matter who you play with, or what team?? That KK-kinitis?

The good news is Carolina is paying him $1,000,000 per assist so far.

[Skilly]

Dec 9, 2021 14:25:03 GMT -5 The Habitual Fan said:

Dec 9, 2021 12:33:33 GMT -5 Skilly said:

Sooooo, KK-kinitis is not fake news?

The disease that gives you 8 points in 24 games no matter who you play with, or what team?? That KK-kinitis?

The good news is Carolina is paying him $1,000,000 per assist so far.

Totally irrelevant to how he was put on multiple lines last year on Montreal, but all of a sudden it’s an excuse for not gelling this year.

Oh and by the way, try calculating KK’s points per 60 minutes ES and PP and compare to Habs players, namely Dvorak and Suzuki. Suzuki is better on PP, but KK is better than both ES.

[Boston_Habs]

I feel a bit bad for Ducharme and I'm not sure if he's really just a "bad coach" or a good coach caught in bad circumstances. He comes in during a season to replace Julien, which is a tough dynamic for any coach let alone one where this is his first NHL gig. It doesn't really go well, but it's basically Julien's system, and then we go on this bizarre run to the Cup finals where Ducharme gets Covid and Luke Richardson is behind the bench in a few of the biggest games.

Then Ducharme and the whole team is hampered by a quick turnaround to the 2021/22 season, which is compounded by him trying to implement a new system AND deal with significant injuries to Price and Weber and the loss of Danault. Things fell off the rails almost immediately, the team looks completely demoralized and nobody seems to be able to lock in to what Ducharme is trying to do. Add to that the fact that coaches need to win to prove their worth in the league and playing kids and losing either pisses off the veterans or makes Ducharme look lost as a coach.

I have no idea what Gorton thinks of all this, but it's a conundrum for next year. The obvious move is to fire Ducharme, but we still need to find another French speaking coach. But can you say he deserves another shot next year in a more "normal" environment with a clear mission from leadership? Maybe. My gut tells me we can do better than Ducharme and it's possible he's already "lost the room" with this group but I think the circumstances screwed him as well.

[Willie Dog]

What is screwing Ducharme us his apparent lack of ability to modify his system to meet the talents of the resources at his disposal... square peg round hole, this team has been stuck with coaches who think like that for as long as I can remember

[frozone]

Imo, this season was a near write off after the condensed 25 games in 44 days last season. Add to that the 22 playoff games… In total, the Habs have played 106 games so far in 2021. No wonder the injury ward is at max capacity.

Sure, Ducharme is part of the problem in the sense that he hasn’t found a way to remain competitive with a crippled team. But I doubt any of the league’s coaches could squeeze anything else out of this bunch. Let’s face it: they emptied the tank during the cup run and haven’t recovered. I don’t put that blame on anyone.

[Polarice]

Usually when there is a new GM, he usually hires his own guy. He doesn't want to inherit any bad vibes from the previous regime. So, I don't thing it really matters if he wins or looses, his fate is sealed.

[Willie Dog]

Dec 10, 2021 19:53:31 GMT -5 frozone said:

Imo, this season was a near write off after the condensed 25 games in 44 days last season. Add to that the 22 playoff games… In total, the Habs have played 106 games so far in 2021. No wonder the injury ward is at max capacity.

Sure, Ducharme is part of the problem in the sense that he hasn’t found a way to remain competitive with a crippled team. But I doubt any of the league’s coaches could squeeze anything else out of this bunch. Let’s face it: they emptied the tank during the cup run and haven’t recovered. I don’t put that blame on anyone.

If your system fails because of regular breakdowns, then it means the players you have cant do it, so you change the system, you dont put the lines in the blender, you keep the lines together and put the system in the blender

[habsorbed]

Dec 11, 2021 9:54:22 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

Dec 10, 2021 19:53:31 GMT -5 frozone said:

Imo, this season was a near write off after the condensed 25 games in 44 days last season. Add to that the 22 playoff games… In total, the Habs have played 106 games so far in 2021. No wonder the injury ward is at max capacity.

Sure, Ducharme is part of the problem in the sense that he hasn’t found a way to remain competitive with a crippled team. But I doubt any of the league’s coaches could squeeze anything else out of this bunch. Let’s face it: they emptied the tank during the cup run and haven’t recovered. I don’t put that blame on anyone.

If your system fails because of regular breakdowns, then it means the players you have cant do it, so you change the system, you dont put the lines in the blender, you keep the lines together and put the system in the blender

Not sure it's easy to know what to put in the blender, but when you've tried putting one in the blender and it comes out crap for a few weeks with. no improvement then you need to put the other in the blender - Cooking 101. Otherwise your restaurant goes out of business real fast. And most owners would fire the chef before the businesses' reputation is sullied.

[CentreHice]

Dec 11, 2021 8:54:03 GMT -5 Polarice said:

Usually when there is a new GM, he usually hires his own guy. He doesn't want to inherit any bad vibes from the previous regime. So, I don't thing it really matters if he wins or looses, his fate is sealed.

Iconic avatar, polar!

[frozone]

Dec 11, 2021 9:54:22 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

Dec 10, 2021 19:53:31 GMT -5 frozone said:

Imo, this season was a near write off after the condensed 25 games in 44 days last season. Add to that the 22 playoff games… In total, the Habs have played 106 games so far in 2021. No wonder the injury ward is at max capacity.

Sure, Ducharme is part of the problem in the sense that he hasn’t found a way to remain competitive with a crippled team. But I doubt any of the league’s coaches could squeeze anything else out of this bunch. Let’s face it: they emptied the tank during the cup run and haven’t recovered. I don’t put that blame on anyone.

If your system fails because of regular breakdowns, then it means the players you have cant do it, so you change the system, you dont put the lines in the blender, you keep the lines together and put the system in the blender

Sure, go ahead. It will make no difference.

We have almost an entire salary cap worth of players currently out of the lineup. If Ducharme is able to implement a system that brings this beaten up squad to the playoffs, I would immediately anoint him HC of the Habs for the next decade.

[Skilly]

Dec 11, 2021 14:08:57 GMT -5 frozone said:

Dec 11, 2021 9:54:22 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

If your system fails because of regular breakdowns, then it means the players you have cant do it, so you change the system, you dont put the lines in the blender, you keep the lines together and put the system in the blender

Sure, go ahead. It will make no difference.

We have almost an entire salary cap worth of players currently out of the lineup. If Ducharme is able to implement a system that brings this beaten up squad to the playoffs, I would immediately anoint him HC of the Habs for the next decade.

Even when we had a full roster, this team was losing with extreme regularity

At the start of this year, they were only missing Byron, Edmunston, Weber and Price ....and losing

This season is not ALL on injuries. Nor is it on the compressed schedule. ALL teams had jam packed schedules. Sure Montreal had 25 in 44 days, but most had 22ish in the same timeframe give a day or two longer. Tampa Bay and Vegas didn't seem to be hurt by injuries or the number of games in 2021.

This team is a house of cards that is held up by hall of fame goaltending .... any team can win if they had that kind of goaltending. The business model of this team sucks

[frozone]

Dec 11, 2021 14:35:45 GMT -5 Skilly said:

Dec 11, 2021 14:08:57 GMT -5 frozone said:

Sure, go ahead. It will make no difference.

We have almost an entire salary cap worth of players currently out of the lineup. If Ducharme is able to implement a system that brings this beaten up squad to the playoffs, I would immediately anoint him HC of the Habs for the next decade.

Even when we had a full roster, this team was losing with extreme regularity

At the start of this year, they were only missing Byron, Edmunston, Weber and Price ....and losing

This season is not ALL on injuries. Nor is it on the compressed schedule. ALL teams had jam packed schedules. Sure Montreal had 25 in 44 days, but most had 22ish in the same timeframe give a day or two longer. Tampa Bay and Vegas didn't seem to be hurt by injuries or the number of games in 2021.

This team is a house of cards that is held up by hall of fame goaltending .... any team can win if they had that kind of goaltending. The business model of this team sucks

But that’s kinda the point: when did we have our full roster?

You’re right that it’s not ALL on injuries, but Ducharme can only do so much with the guys that he has available to him. Even if you want to focus on the first handful of games this year, he was missing the backbone of the team. And the Habs weren’t the only playoff team to be slow out of the gate.

There are plenty of threads discussing the construction of the roster, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. How much of the team’s record can we really blame on Ducharme? IMO, his communication is probably poor. Especially early in the season, there seemed to be confusion regarding the system. So we got blown out in a few games that we probably could have lost by a goal or two instead.