Flames coach Ryan Huska on invite to world championship: ‘It is such an honour'
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In fact, that's a huge part of the appeal of this role at worlds.
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Canada's staff, which formally was announced Wednesday, will include a hat-trick of NHL head coaches — Evason, Huska and Andrew Brunette. Steve McCarthy, one of Evason's usual assistants in Columbus, also is on board.
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'Whenever you get a chance to take a step back and evaluate and watch and listen to another head coach's way of doing things, I think you can always take little bits of information, whether it's the way they present or the way they think the game tactically or systems-wise,' said Huska, who will be tasked with running Canada's penalty-kill. 'So is there something that I can take or use from them to help make our team better and to help make myself better? And then, you also get an opportunity to work with some of the better players in the NHL that aren't fortunate enough to be playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs right now.
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'You spend basically every day for almost a month with the same group of guys, so you're going to have a lot of conversations. Some of those will be off-the-cuff, where you're just sitting having lunch or having a beer and you start talking hockey.
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'Other times, you're going to be right into work mode, when we're trying to help our team win a gold medal. I think you can gain so much by being around other quality people. That's one of the big reasons why I'm looking forward to it.'
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Of course, it's not just about bringing back knowledge.
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Huska's previous international assignments have ended with near-misses. During his days with the WHL's Kelowna Rockets, he was twice an assistant coach at the world junior, settling for silver in 2011 and bronze in 2012.
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'Expectations, as you know, with Canada are very much to go over and win. And that's what our expectation is to do,' Huska said. 'For us, it's about finding a way to get the team on the same page in short order and get them through the early portion of the tournament to make sure that we're playing our very best as it moves forward.
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