CALGARY -- A big NHL name with no previous experience coaching international hockey has stepped behind the bench of Canadas Olympic womens hockey team. Kevin Dineen was introduced Tuesday as the replacement for Dan Church, who abruptly resigned last week. Dineen was fired last month by the NHLs Florida Panthers. Hes represented Canada as a player six times, but the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, will be the first time hes coached a Canadian team. Dineen called his hiring "hopping on a moving train" as the Sochi opening ceremonies are less than two months away. Two forwards and a defenceman must be released before the 21-player Olympic roster is named. Dineen was born in Quebec City, but grew up in Toronto. The 50-year-old played in 1,188 NHL regular-season games, scoring 355 goals and adding 405 assists for the Hartford Whalers, Philadelphia Flyers, Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets and Ottawa Senators. He also played for the Canadian team that finished fourth at the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia. "That stuck with me a long time, not to come out of there with a medal," Dineen said. "I may have a little unfinished business from my Olympic experience." Dineen was in his third season coaching the Panthers when he was dismissed Nov. 8. Looking for hockey work, Dineen said he contacted Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson early last week about the possibility of coaching at the mens world championship in April. Church returned home to Toronto last Thursday without addressing the players. Hockey Canada said he left for "personal reasons." Churchs explanation before boarding the plane was he felt there was a lack of confidence in his ability to coach Canada to Olympic gold. The women lost 5-1 that evening to the United States with assistants Danielle Goyette and Lisa Haley co-coaching. The women went 1-1 in weekend games against male midget triple-A teams. Dineen flew to Toronto on Sunday to meet with Nicholson, chief operating officer Scott Smith and womens team scout and general manager Melody Davidson. "I was not expecting this opportunity," Dineen said. "This has been a whirlwind few days but when this opportunity presented itself I immediately jumped at it. "You end up getting fired and you go through a range of emotions. Sometimes things happen for a reason. I think this may be my reason." Dineen ran his first practice with the women after he was introduced to the media at a news conference. The Canadian women have been training full time in Calgary since August and have already played more than 30 games. The players were informed who their new coach would be just a few minutes before the news conference. They taped their names to the front of their helmets for practice so Dineen would know who they were. "It was typical hockey school, trying to help him out a bit," goaltender Charline Labonte said. "Right now, moving forward I think if we have the opportunity its nice to have someone who played the game. No, he doesnt know much about womens hockey. He seems interested and I know hes watched a lot of tapes. I know hell do anything to be ready and to learn about our game." Canada and the U.S. will clash three times over the next two weeks in their final exhibition games prior to the Olympics, starting with Fridays matchup in Grand Forks, N.D. Canada won womens Olympic hockey gold in 2002, 2006 and 2010, but has lost four of the last five world championship finals to the U.S. Hockey Canadas plan was to announce the Olympic roster prior to their holiday break next week, but the timetable is murkier with the coaching change. Five-time Olympian Hayley Wickenheiser says Dineen will have to adjust to dealing with female athletes, but she didnt feel his lack of international coaching experience would hinder his ability to coach the Canadian women. "Hes played for a long time and coached in the NHL and has a good track record of coaching experience and also playing internationally, so Im not too concerned about that," Canadas all-time leading scorer said. "Its different than the mens game, how you handle players, the way you approach team concepts and put the team together. Aside from that, the game on the ice, I dont think its too complicated to what goes on the mens side. "Men and women are different in the way they function and thats probably going to be the biggest adjustment for him." Dineens daughter Hannah is a freshman forward for Colby College in Maine and another daughter Emma is a soccer player. Dineen says hes coached Hannah and a team of Maine selects the last five years. "Ive been exposed to the intense, committed female athlete," he said. Dineen says hes already asked his daughters for advice and theyve told him to watch his language. "Dads vocabulary is sometimes . . . I think Ive been in enough womens locker-rooms over the year to know exactly how they speak so I dont have a lot of concerns on that," Dineen said. Davidson coached the Canadian women to gold in 2006 and 2010, but was adamant she would not step into the breach. McGill Martlets head coach Peter Smith and former NHL players Doug Lidster, Ryan Walter and Tim Bothwell have all served as either head or assistant coaches of the Canadian women at previous Olympics and world championships. But Hockey Canada went off the board to recruit a man fresh from the NHL ranks. "The biggest thing is we needed a new voice overall and in the end it didnt come from within our program," Davidson said. "Thats why I wasnt in the running, why I didnt want to be in the running. "Kevin brings forth a lot of the qualities we wanted: a good communicator, has a history of building a good team environment, has international background, sincere. "Even though he hasnt coached high-level, international women, when you have two daughters and a wife, you get a good touch of what its like to work with females as well." As it would be in the NHL when theres a sudden coaching change, Dineen had the womens full attention in Tuesdays practice because he is someone they need to quickly impress. The women had spent the days since Church departure in limbo and were relieved an important question had been answered. "Everyone has different feelings probably on what happened," forward Jayna Hefford said. "Its tough to see someone go who has invested so much in the program and Dan did that. "Its been a challenging week for us. A lot of emotions and I think until this was put in place, it was hard for us to move on. Now, I think were excited. Weve got someone who has played the game at a high level and coached the game at a high level and has a passion for the game." Dineen is the son of former NHL player and coach Bill Dineen, and his brother Gord also played in the NHL. The Panthers made the playoffs in 2011-12 when Kevin Dineen made his NHL coaching debut. Florida was 3-9 when he was fired. "Theres no doubt in my mind that hes going to bring a lot of success to that team and they should do well," Panthers defenceman Erik Gudbranson said. "Its a different game. But good hockey minds figure stuff out." Wickenheiser is day-to-day with a lower body injury she suffered in the first period of last weeks game against the U.S. when she collided with a teammate. She participated in the first half of Tuesdays practice wearing a yellow no-contact jersey. Forward Marie-Philip Poulin has played in only three games since September with a high ankle sprain. She skated prior to practice, but did not join her teammates for the full session. Poulin scored both goals for Canada in a 2-0 win over the U.S. in the 2010 Olympic final. 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Once again Jordan Cieciwa (@FitCityJordan) and I (@LynchOnSports) go head to head in our picks. Last weekend at UFC Fight Night 32 my #TeamLynch got the best of #TeamJC by a score of 9-6. Let us know which side youre on for UFC 167 use the hashtag #TeamLynch or #TeamJC on Twitter.I am very excited to start contributing to the TSN website on a regular basis with blogs and columns about the Ottawa Senators. In this space, I will be writing new and unique pieces about the team that you wont be able to find anywhere else. So naturally, in an attempt to come up with a fresh topic about the Ottawa Senators, I am going to start with a piece about their goaltending. Bet you didnt see that one coming. With Craig Anderson sidelined due to a neck injury, Robin Lehner has stepped up and seized the moment with a pair of much-needed wins for the club. Lehners performance in those two victories has many Sens fans suggesting that his time has arrived to be anointed the teams No. 1 netminder. Ottawa fans are so conditioned to not having one reliable goaltender; they almost dont seem to know what to do with two of them. But before you start thinking this situation has the potential to become a full-fledged goalie controversy, there are a few things you need to remember. The most important factor in the Ottawa crease is the contracts that both netminders have - specifically Anderson. There are 23 goaltenders in the NHL who have a bigger cap hit than Andersons $3.18 million contract, making it arguably the leagues best deal for a netminder. If he was healthy last season, Anderson would have been the favorite to win the Vezina Trophy and his performance in the playoffs against Montreal cemented his status as a legitimate No. 1 goalie. To put this in perspective, Anderson has a lower cap hit than both Devan Dubnyk and Ondrej Pavelec. When the Vancouver Canucks were in the midst of a goalie controversy last year with both Cory Schneider and Roberto Luongo, the biggest catalyst for that storm was the latters ridiculous contract. The Canucks were spending more than $9 million in their crease and it seemed counterproductive to have one goalie making more than $5 million to be sitting at the end of the bench on a regular basis. The same thing happened in Pittsburgh last spring, when Marc-Andre Fleurys contract suddenly looked like a white elephant on the payroll during the playoffs when he lost his job to the more economical Tomas Vokoun. But in Ottawa, they are spending only $4 million combined on the position when you factor in Lehners $850,000 salary for this season. There is no financial element that would push Ottawa to a tipping point this season. Lehner is set to become a restricted free agent in July, but the club would still hold the hammer in those negotiations. When Bryan Murray signed Anderson to his four-year deal back in the spring of 2011, the consensus amongst Ottawa fans was that it was a great contract - except most of them didnt like the fourth year tacked on at the end.dddddddddddd Ironically, that fourth year is the best thing that could have happened to the club, because now it buys them another year to figure out their long-term plan. If Andersons deal was set to expire this season, there would have been more pressure to try and either trade him or sign him to an extension. But now, Murray can let this situation breathe knowing he doesnt have to face a real pressure point until after this season at the earliest. Last season, the Ottawa general manager was forced to deal a goaltender because Ben Bishop was set to become a restricted free agent and the club knew it could no longer keep its three-headed monster in goal. That was a very real pressure point, since they did not want to lose Bishop as a restricted free agent - nor did they want to go through the exercise of signing him to a new contract only to have to turn around and trade him. That was a real pressure point for Murray and one that he doesnt have to deal with this season. Some fans are now suggesting Murray should have moved Anderson at the deadline last season and hung onto Bishop and Lehner, since he likely would have received more for the veteran netminder. But at the time Anderson was the most proven and stable goalie of the bunch and his contract was extremely reasonable for a No. 1 goaltender. And that last sentence remains true today: Of the three goaltenders, Anderson remains the most proven of that trio. The best parallel to the Anderson-Lehner situation could be the one that played out in Boston with Tim Tomas and Tuuka Rask. Those two goalies shared the crease for three full seasons and while it did get awkward at times, they did win a Stanley Cup in that situation. Thomas eventually orchestrated his own departure out of Boston, but that was after three full seasons of sharing the crease with a young prospect. Two capable netminders can share the workload for an extended period of time before something has to give. Were not anywhere near that point in Ottawa right now. The other thing to consider is that injuries can always play a factor in the goaltending equation. Its a long season ahead and both Lehner and Anderson could be heading over to Sochi to represent their countries in February. And if Sens fans have learned one thing over the years, its that when their goalie heads overseas for the Olympics, he doesnt always come back healthy. cheap jerseys cheap jerseys cheap nfl jerseys Ray Ban Outlet Michael Kors Outlet Michael Kors Sale Cheap Michael Kors ' ' '