Team Canada looking to lift spirits of mourning coach
The World Junior Championship is a tough, tight tournament which requires players' and coaches' complete focus, but one man on the Team Canada bench has his mind elsewhere. Assistant Team Canada coach Dominique Ducharme learned his father, Jacques Ducharme, passed away on Dec. 29 while Dominique was in Finland with Team Canada.
According to the Toronto Star, Ducharme's mother urged her son to stay in Finland with Team Canada through the tournament, so the team -- filled with players ranging from 18 to 20 years old --- has been doing all it can to rally behind its coach.
Via the Toronto Star:
Ducharme, a native of Joliet, Quebec, is regularly the coach of the Halifax Mooseheads of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, where he helped develop current NHL talent including Nathan MacKinnon (Colorado Avalanche) and Jonathan Drouin (Tampa Bay Lightning).
Team Canada chose to log off all forms of social media for the duration of the tournament, but the Mooseheads sent out a tweet in support of their coach on Wednesday morning.
“It’s really hard to take,” defenseman Roland McKeown of the Kingston Frontenacs told reporters. “He’s an awesome person, and an awesome assistant coach. He’s handled it tremendously. He had a very heartfelt speech in the room. We’re going to jell behind him and do it for him.”
