CALGARY -- A big NHL name with no previous experience coaching international hockey has stepped behind the bench of Canadas Olympic womens hockey team. Matt Breida Super Bowl Jersey . 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. "Well have her back in the New Year," Davidson said. "Whether well have her back earlier than that only the rehab and the time she puts into us well tell us that." DeForest Buckner Super Bowl Jersey . Wawrinka, who is seeded fourth, is in the top half of the draw with Serbian Novak Djokovic. The Swiss star outlasted Djokovic in a five-set quarterfinal thriller last year and stunned Spaniard Rafael Nadal in the final to capture his first-ever Grand Slam title. Tarvarius Moore Super Bowl Jersey . Bryant underwent an operation in December to correct an irregular heartbeat. His season ended with four games left because of a rapid heartbeat, a condition he has known about for several years and had been treated for in the past. https://www.49ersrookiestore.com/49ers-Colin-Kaepernick-Jersey/ . Showing more spark after not taking enough challenging shots on goal in their 1-0 loss Friday night, the Bruins had 18 shots in the first period after managing just 25 in the entire opener. Luke Glendening cut Bostons lead to 2-1 at 13:20 of the second period before Milan Lucic scored late in the second and Zdeno Chara added a power-play goal early in the third.Imagine if you will a Jays team starting this season with Roberto Alomar at second base, Joe Carter in right field, Devon White in centre, John Olerud at first and Paul Molitor at DH. Not to mention a pitching staff, that includes Dave Stewart, Juan Guzman, Pat Hentgen and up-and-comers like Woody Williams, Al Leiter and Todd Stottlemyre. This team would also have three young prospects who could be the foundation of a great team for years to come in Carlos Delgado, Shawn Green and Alex Gonzalez. You might already be printing the World Series tickets. Well it didnt exactly turn out that way for the 1994 Blue Jays. They did win six of their first seven games and got off to decent 12-6 start including a six-game win streak. However it didnt last, and by the time the strike came in mid-August that led to the eventual shutdown of the season, they had faded to 55-60 and the dream of a three-peat gone with it. I painted that little scenario to show you how difficult it can be to predict division winners, let alone World Series champs. The 1994 Jays had most of the key components back from the team that had repeated in 1993, including having WAMCO intact as the top five hitters in the lineup (White, Alomar, Molitor, Carter and Olerud). There were three missing pieces. Closer Duane Ward had injured his shoulder in the offseason and was never really able to come back and be the dominant bullpen stopper he had been. Shortstop Tony Fernandez and left fielder Rickey Henderson had been allowed to leave in the offseason as well. Still, there was more than enough talent for this team to contend. Darren Hall, a mere shadow of Ward took over as closer and recorded 17 saves. Veteran Dick Schofield played the bulk of the games at short and journeyman Mike Huff played left for the most part. I would submit the 94 Blue Jays had far more talent than the current Jays, yet they finished the abbreviated season five games under .500. You dont want to be a total buzz-kill about the 2014 Jays, because they do have talent. If they both stay healthy, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion are capable of hitting at least 40 homers. Melky Cabrera, sans back tumour, is looking more like he could have been batting champ with the Giants a couple of years ago. Jose Reyes, again when healthy, is one of the top shortstops in the game. Brett Lawrie could be on the cusp of developing into one of the top third basemen in the Majors, and this is a free agent contract year for Colby Rasmus, so the pressure is on for him to produce. In other words, the offence should be there. As it has been the past two seasons, pitching is the question. The starting rotation has to log enough innings to give a solid bullpen the chance to produce results for the entire season, not just the first half, after which they could fade from overuse. If Drew Hutchison is the real deal, and it looks as though he just might be, the top three in the rotation looks pretty decent, though you always worry about the inevitable age-related declines of veterans like R.A. Dickey ( 39) and Mark Buehrle (35). Dante Pettis Super Bowl Jersey. The question marks are the 4 and 5 starters. Brandon Morrow has to prove he can put together a dominant healthy season and finally realize his vast potential. As for Dustin McGowan, youd have to have a heart of stone not to be pulling for this guy, whos battled through injury after injury to finally crack the Opening Day roster for the first time since 2008. Top prospects Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman are waiting in the wings, but probably wont make significant contributions this season, unless there is another rash of injuries, or the Jays drop so far back, they just decide to go young. After calling the Jays to win 92 or 93 games a year ago and contend for a wild card spot, Im reluctant to make any kind of a call on where they will finish in 2014. But my gut tells me they will win 83 or 84 games and be battling for fourth with Baltimore or maybe even Boston. I really do hope Im wrong. Jays Elsewhere Not a really good well for Canadians in the Majors or ex-Jays. The Cubs released Canuck catcher George Kottaras, while Minnesota out-righted lefthander Scott Diamond of Guelph, Ontario to Triple "A" Rochester. Lefty Frank Viola, a Cy Young winner and World Series star in his days with the Twins, had a brief stint with the Jays near the end of his career. The now 53-year-old Viola is taking a leave of absence from his job as the Mets Triple "A" pitching coach at Las Vegas after undergoing open heart surgery. The man taking Violas place is Tom Signore, who was the Blue Jays Double "A" pitching coach at New Hampshire the past three years. So Signore will get to work with the Mets top pitching prospect Noah Syndergaard, whom he also had in the Blue Jays system before he was traded as part of the package for R.A Dickey. Former Jays righthander Shaun Marcum was sent to their minor league camp by Clevleand. Marcum, who was dealt to Milwaukee for Brett Lawrie, has seen his career hampered by injuries. Over eight years in the bigs, the 32-year-old Marcum has a 58-46 record with a 3.88 earned run average. The Indians are hoping he can battle his way back at some point this season. J.P Arencibia was hoping to get some significant playing time in Texas this season to re-establish his career. When the Rangers number one backstop Geovany Soto went down for 10-12 weeks with torn meniscus in his right knee, it looked as though J.P would be the man but skipper Ron Washington has been more impressed with Robinson Chirinos. So it appears J.P., at least for now, is stuck as the backup. One Jay having a good week, in fact a good spring, is catcher Yan Gomes. He appears to have won the number one job with Cleveland after the Indians moved Carlos Santana from catcher to third base. The Jays traded Gomes and veteran utility infielder Mike Aviles to the Indians for righthander Esmil Rogers in the previous offseason. Considering how Gomes has progressed and Rogers has faltered this spring, the Jays might like a mulligan on that one. ' ' '