Is Dominique Ducharme at the end of his resources?
During Friday morning’s training session, the CH pilot benefited from an excellent opportunity to exercise his leadership and pass on a message: the effort of his troops was downright horrible.
But conversely, the Quebec instructor sadly seemed overwhelmed by events.
Marc-André Perreault, who attended the practice in question, first went there with a contextualization.
“Assuming we play like we practice, today’s practice gave us a good insight into why the CH are 32nd in the NHL. I’ve seen maybe 600 practices in the last few years, so I kinda know what I’m talking regarding. I was at a Blackhawks practice two weeks ago and when the coach whistled between drills, all the guys would come rushing in and kneel down in front of him to hear his instructions. The last to arrive had to do an ice trick.
“This morning at some point Ducharme whistled and it took forever for the players to arrive. There are two guys in particular, who I won’t name, who were leaning on the edge of the boards, chatting and who took a good ten seconds before showing up in front of the coach.
Jean-Charles Lajoie, seeing the images of the scene recounted by his colleague, then jumped.
“And during this wait, Ducharme looks at the ground. He practices curling by sweeping the ice with his stick. He does not stare at any player! I’m going to tell you something: the late Pat Burns would have given them all a soap, to the players!
Perreault added to it.
“I was with Renaud and I said to him at a certain moment: “It’s me, where the guys are flat“It looked like a little skating session in Baldwin Park. I didn’t like it.”
Fortunately, mentioned the journalist, two very specific players were on the ice with the firm intention of working there tirelessly.
See which ones in the main video, while the full discussion between JiC and Marc-André Parreault can be found there.
