Coach tosses barbs for good reason
WORLD JUNIORS: Ducharme coyly comments on how Swedes have poor record at crunch time
“I think we’ve had a group that’s grown. We don’t feel like we’re the favourites” — Swedish coach Tomas Monten
By now you’ve undoubtedly noticed Dominique Ducharme’s darting eyes, the type of piercing peepers that seem to look right through whatever he’s glaring at.
And when he tactically uses them to stare down a target — whatever or whomever it might be — it’s often enough to rattle an opponent and throw them off their game.
But the Team Canada coach has another weapon in his arsenal — his mouth. And while he normally shies away from using his words to reveal what he’s planning and calculating — indeed, trying to get him to identify his starting goalie is at times as arduous as pulling teeth — Ducharme picked the eve of his team’s huge semifinal clash against Sweden to strategically drop an unexpected bombshell via his wagging tongue.
Asked about Canada’s Wednesday night showdown against Tre Kronor at the Bell Centre, the Canadian coach candidly replied: “They’re a good team. They showed in the last 10 years that they’re really good in the first round but they have ways to lose when things get tougher and we want to make it tough on them.”
Ducharme didn’t use the phrase “chokers.”
He didn’t have to. The insinuation is as clear and as obvious as the bright yellow jerseys the Swedes wear.
So is Ducharme right? Does he have a point, no matter how many Scandinavian feathers he’s ruffled in order to make it?
A look through the world junior championship history books indicates Ducharme has, in fact, opened up an ugly wound that cannot be ignored, much as the Swedes may try to.
In the past decade, the Swedes are 40-0 in preliminary round games, but just 11-11 in the knockout stage. Sure, they’ve competed in five of the past six gold medal contests, but they’ve won it just once, yet another example of how they’ve wobbled at crunch time with everything on the line.
Of course, Ducharme’s comments are dripping in hypocrisy themselves, given the fact that the Canadians also have been flops at this point of the tournament in recent times, winning just one gold medal since 2009. But even with those struggles, the Canadians have pretty much owned the Swedes in these one-and-done games, having beaten them six consecutive times under those circumstances.
And while a seventh might be the most difficult one to achieve, “it’s one game and we’ll be ready for it,” Ducharme said. “We can beat them.”
There you have it: one hearty dose of swagger neatly wrapped in our red-and-white flag.
Truth be told, once the shock of Ducharme’s unexpected barbs subsided, it became clear that there is method to his madness on so many layers.
On the home front, he’s obviously attempting to deliver a verbal kick in the collective butts of his players, who have appeared moribund at times in this tournament especially in the past two games when they found themselves trailing both the U.S. and Czech Republic after the first period.
In terms of the 4-0 Swedes, they’ve been the best team to date in the tournament and have looked strong offensively, defensively and between the pipes. As such, Ducharme appears to be using any resource at his disposal to rattle them, even if that means reminding them of their recent mediocre medal record.
And hey, don’t put it past the personable Ducharme to be launching such biting words in order to create some buzz for a tournament that simply hasn’t had much.
The sparse crowd of 10,215 for the Monday night’s Canada-Czech Republic quarter-final was bitterly disappointing and once again underscored Hockey Canada’s mismanagement of both ticket prices and the gauging of market interest in both Toronto and Montreal. Another embarrassing turnout in the stands will be a significant blow to the brands of both Hockey Canada and the world junior championships, no matter how much of a cash cow holding this event in Canada’s two largest cities proves to be.
Keeping all that in mind, if an offshoot of Ducharme’s words is an increase in interest among the ducat-buying public, then all the better for the organizers.
As for the Swedes, well, they’re taking Ducharme’s allegations in stride.
“I think we’ve had a group that’s grown. We don’t feel like we’re the favourites,” Swedish coach Tomas Monten said.
“Every team that goes to this tournament goes here to win. We haven’t won in a while. Of course, everything we’ve done so far is to prepare for the final two games. “We hope to prove them wrong.” The Swedish word for bulletin board is “Anslagstavla.”
Thanks to Ducharme, Monten now has fodder to put on it to motivate his team.
In the end, what will the effect be of Ducharme’s comments? Will the Canadians or Swedes be more fired up because of them?
And will they help put more butts in a sea of seemingly-endless empty seats?
We’ll say this much for Ducharme: he certainly has added intrigue to Wednesday night’s matchup.