Canadiens fire head coach Dominique Ducharme

The Montreal Canadiens, mired in a season-long tailspin, have fired head coach Dominique Ducharme.

The 48-year-old was relieved of his duties Wednesday with Montreal languishing in the league basement at 8-30-7. His dismissal comes in the wake of a 7-1 rout by the New Jersey Devils on Tuesday.

"Nobody likes to lose," Ducharme said after the game. "Guys' intentions are there. Within the game, there are moments where you need to bounce back and we need to do a better job of that."

Someone else will be tasked with that now. Montreal was expected to name a replacement coach later Wednesday.

The Canadiens went 23-46-14 record in 83 regular-season games under Ducharme — and 13-6 in post-season play, making the Stanley Cup final for the first time since 1993.

"We would like to sincerely thank Dominique for his work and contributions to the Montreal Canadiens organization. At this point in the season, we felt it was in the best interest of the club to make a change," Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes said in a statement.

There is plenty of work to do.

Montreal has given up 33 goals in its last five outings and lost seven straight, including two overtime defeats. The nosedive goes deeper than that with 13 losses — four in OT — in the last 14 games.

After making the Cup final last year, the Habs opened the season with five straight losses. GM Marc Bergevin was fired Nov. 28 with the team struggling at 6-15-2.

Dominique Ducharme has been relieved of his head coaching duties.<a href="https://t.co/wSdkwrOMXC">https://t.co/wSdkwrOMXC</a>

Montreal has posted just two wins since and sits bottom of the league. It has yet to post back-to-back wins this season.

Ducharme paid the price for Montreal's awful start to the season, with the