Going for gold

MONTREAL - With the World Junior Championship (WJC) set to begin in Vancouver and Victoria, BC later this month, we sat down with two members of the Canadiens organization who have not only taken part in the prestigious tournament, but also won gold.

First off, there's Joel Bouchard.
Bouchard is currently in his first season as head coach of the Canadiens' AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket.
With all the connections he's made in the world of Junior hockey, the former member of the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada is sure to be a key cog in the development machine for the Canadiens organization.
That rings even more true when you consider that Bouchard has been a member of Hockey Canada's WJC brass three times, charged with running Canada's national Junior team as a member of its Program of Excellence management team.
The experience was an incredible one for Bouchard on many levels, and he affirms he's had all the tools necessary to succeed in the domain.
"When you get to Hockey Canada's Program of Excellence, it's like making it to the top of the pyramid. It's a process that starts well in advance. I was with Hockey Canada for three years," he explained. "We have a lot of information, we also have a good structure with many competent people who can help advise management. Everything that's done at Hockey Canada is done logically."
Even if the connections Bouchard had formed during his years with the Armada are many, the Rocket head coach admits there's still a big adjustment to make when you get to the big dance.
"We adapt a lot during the tournament for practices, games, and days off," he shared. "There's a lot of advance preparation, but there is also a question of 'feeling'. Everything I do, I do with the goal of becoming world champion."
Bouchard may be in possession of the tournament's most coveted medal, but that doesn't mean there weren't some pitfalls along the way - notably, when Team Canada lost in a shootout in Montreal.
But the coach firmly believes that loss was a part of the development and learning process that led him and his squad to gold in 2018.
"For us, it wasn't a failure. Losing in a shootout, the game could've gone one way or the other. But we also didn't think we were perfect," recounted Bouchard. "We changed things the following year. We made our 2018 team watch the 2017 final so we'd be able to home in on our mistakes."
It was a strategy that paid off that next year, as Canada emerged as the tournament champion in 2018.
Winning gold is an invaluable experience, according to Bouchard.
"I told the players after the win: no matter how many millions you're going to make, no matter in which city you're going to play and the number of points you'll get in the NHL, the important thing is now you know what it takes to become a champion," recalled the coach.
"That's what we want to build at Hockey Canada."
The feeling of a job well done
Bouchard was able to share those last two years at Hockey Canada with his friend and current Canadiens colleague Dominique Ducharme.
Now an assistant coach with the Habs, Ducharme spent three years in the program, first as an assistant in 2016 before being named head coach for the 2017 and 2018 editions.
When we spoke to Ducharme after a recent Canadiens practice in Brossard, the former QMJHL bench boss with both the Halifax Mooseheads and Drummondville Voltigeurs shed some light on the player selection process and the way a winning team is built ahead of the tournament.
"We already have an idea in mind of the players we have on hand. There's a lot of communication with the chief scout, Brad McEwen. He crosses over from one ocean to the next and watches all the players. The Canada-Russia series also gives us a good look to see which players are able to stand out against the best in the world," outlined Ducharme. "When they get to training camp in December, the goal is to build chemistry. When a group of players comes together with a common goal, chemistry develops quickly. The guys are working in the same direction so it comes very fast."
After that shootout loss in the 2017 final, Ducharme was named head coach the following year and, by his own admission, put a lot of pressure on himself after receiving the vote of confidence from above.
"I didn't feel that pressure from Hockey Canada; rather, it was self-imposed. You're coaching Canada, so gold is the goal, period. They really give us all the means to succeed," illustrated the coach. "I always like to compare it to the pressure you feel in school for an exam. If you're prepared, you're not nervous and that's how we felt."
The coaching decision appears to have panned out, as Canada became the champion that year in Buffalo, which was the perfect way for Ducharme to close out a (difficult) chapter of his life.
"For sure, the tournament will be linked unintentionally to my dad, who died while I was in Finland in 2016. I decided to stay because that's what my dad would've wanted. He would've wanted me to come home with a gold medal, but that's not what happened. Then, we got so close in Montreal the next year with a shootout loss, so for me the win in Buffalo closed the chapter in a certain way," confided Ducharme.
"It's a tournament that's at another level and the difference between winning and losing is so small. For me, that was the perfect conclusion."
The 2019 World Junior Championship begins on December 26 in Vancouver, where Canada will be looking to defend its title.