The problem is not Dominique Ducharme

It is fashionable, on social networks, to demand the dismissal of Dominique Ducharme for the atrocious start to the season of the Canadian.

The Canadiens head coach is not perfect. He has his share of responsibility for the team’s woes. In particular because of the failures in numerical superiority, a phase of the game where it is possible to organize patterns, the club being assured of having the puck.

But can we blame him for the lack of talent in the team? For the too many runtime errors? No. He is not the one who directs the skates of Alexander Romanov. Who takes the face-offs in place of Nick Suzuki or Cédric Paquette. Does he deserve to be plucked and tarred if one of his two centers of confidence finished Thursday’s game with a differential of – 5?

The roster deployed this week was one of the weakest at the club in 25 years. A third of the players would be more in their place in an inferior circuit. This is where they were last spring.

Alexander Romanov, who has been cut for 18 of the Canadiens’ 22 playoff games, is not ready for a starting position in the NHL. The reinforcements hired to compensate for the loss of Shea Weber and Phillip Danault tear up terribly in defense. David Savard leads the league in shorthanded goals conceded, and Christian Dvorak has a -10 rating, the team’s worst.

A surgeon could probably operate on you with poultry scissors. But it could be that there are some complications …

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Ducharme enjoyed success in the major junior. With Junior Team Canada. With the Canadian, too, which he led to the Stanley Cup final in his first season at the helm. Except that like all head coaches in the world, all sports combined, he remains behind the talent of his players.

Excellent coaches have known pitiful years with lamentable training. I was covering the Canadian in 2001, when Alain Vigneault was in post. Believe me, it was painful. That winter, the Habs had used 15 defenders. Only one, Patrice Brisebois, had scored more than 25 points. In attack, only Brian Savage had scored more than 20 goals. Was it because of Vigneault’s incompetence? Of course not. In the following years, he had the chance to lead better formations. Suddenly he started winning. Often. Very often. So much so that he made it to the Stanley Cup finals twice, and is now the eighth most successful coach in NHL history.

Another case? That of the head coach of the opponents of the Canadian Thursday night, Barry Trotz. A legend. Twice elected coach of the year. Did you know that in his first five seasons in the NHL, his teams never played for .500? Because he wasn’t good? No. Because he was in charge of the Nashville Predators, which was then an expansion team with limited talent.

A little last? Algiers Arbor. Four-time Stanley Cup winner at the helm of the New York Islanders. In 1991, his club won only 25 games. Then again, it wasn’t because Arbor had gotten bad overnight. Instead, take a look at his training. He could count on Pat LaFontaine… and that’s about it.

Some observers are convinced that a head coach has no impact on the results of his team. I am not from this school. The proof: a toxic boss can lead his club to wreck.

Ducharme controls his trios. His pairs of defenders. His guardian. Their playing time. The deployment in numerical superiority. The confrontations on the ice rink. He is also responsible, in part, for motivating players and training leaders in the locker room.

Many fans want him to be tougher on his players. That he prefers the stick to the carrot. His passive speech, after Thursday’s stinging defeat, was not unanimous. OK. But what would he have gained by destroying his players again? As he explained so well last Saturday: “I cannot pick them up every two days. ”

It’s true. There are limits to publicly planting players in the wrong chair. Or who are limited compared to their opponents. Rather, the right question to ask is: why do these players have so much responsibility?

The answer is simple: Ducharme has no other options.

Because the pipeline does not provide enough quality hopes.

Between 2011 and 2020, the Canadian drafted 76 players. Only nine have played a game in the NHL this season. The only one who has a significant offensive impact with his team this season is Mikhail Sergachev.

In total, all of the players drafted by the Canadiens between 2011 and 2020 have only scored six goals this season. Six! This is frankly insufficient. I did the same exercise with all the other NHL organizations. I left out the Vegas Golden Knights and the Seattle Kraken, who did not take part in all 10 sessions.

Guess where the Canadian ranks with his six goals …

Latest.

With three times fewer goals than the average for other clubs (18 goals).

The real problem of the Habs, it is there. In its inability to find and train quality prospects in sufficient quantity to give coaches better options.

The culprit is not Dominique Ducharme.

The culprits are those responsible for recruiting.