The Flames will be well represented at the world hockey championship, with bench boss Ryan Huska the latest to commit to the tournament
The Flames will be well represented at the world hockey championship, with bench boss Ryan Huska the latest to commit to the tournament
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Calgary Flames head coach Ryan Huska will be on Canada’s bench staff for the coming world championship tournament.
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According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, Huska will serve as an assistant to Dean Evason, the skipper for the Columbus Blue Jackets.
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Huska guided his squad to a 41-27-14 record this season. While many predicted the Flames would be a doormat in the Western Conference, they remained in the wild-card chase until the final week, ultimately tying an unlucky record for most points (96) by a team that did not qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs.
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“Husk has done an amazing job,” general manager Craig Conroy said on exit day at the Saddledome. “I couldn’t be more happy with the job he’s done here for us.”
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Flames fans will have plenty of reason to pay attention to the world championship, which runs May 9-25 in Stockholm, Sweden, and Herning, Denmark.
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MacKenzie Weegar will be a workhorse on Canada’s blue line and top prospect Zayne Parekh will at least be auditioned in pre-tournament games.
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Rasmus Andersson and Mikael Backlund will suit up for Sweden, while Matt Coronato has committed to Team USA and Dan Vladar will be between the pipes for Czechia.
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Huska, who turns 50 in July, has some previous experience in international competition. He was twice an assistant for Team Canada at the world junior championship, earning silver in 2011 and bronze in 2012.
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While he will be primarily focused for a few weeks on adding a gold to his collection, he won’t stop strategizing on how to squeeze a little more out of the Flames next season.
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After all, they don’t present a trophy to the most pleasant surprise. While Huska was proud of his team for their resilience and for embracing a relentless and structured style, he would rather not be available for worlds.
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He’ll undoubtedly view this as an opportunity to hone his own craft, perhaps to ‘borrow’ some ideas that he can bring back to Calgary.
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And, for Flames fans, it should be considered a big bonus that he will be able to spend some extra time working with the 19-year-old Parekh, who is a huge part of the future plan.
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“You play to play in the playoffs and we haven’t done that for two years now,” Huska said last weekend as he wrapped his seventh season at the Saddledome, five of those as an assistant before he was promoted to head coach. “The players did everything the right way the majority part of the year, but we set a goal to get ourselves in and we weren’t able to do that.
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