Dominique Ducharme hadn’t slept a whole lot in the previous 72 hours when he arrived to meet with the media Saturday morning.
The new Canadiens interim coach had just run his team through a highly instructive morning skate, following a highly instructive practice Friday, which followed a highly embarrassing game Thursday, during which his team had allowed a 3-1 lead to turn into a 6-3 loss to the Winnipeg Jets.
Ducharme had little reason to feel confident about his team’s ability to somehow build on that considering the Canadiens had lost four straight games and six of their previous seven and that he had not had much time to implement the changes that would make them his team.
But Ducharme felt a change in his team, a level of comprehension that gave him a reason to boldly proclaim what he expected out of the Canadiens later that night against the Jets.
“When we played that first game, obviously we had a meeting the night before.
