Hello from Vaclav Havel Airport in Prague.
I've got a little bit of time before the long journey home begins: Prague - Frankfurt - Toronto - Vancouver. So, a moment to check in on the latest news.
First off, the Utica Comets will play Game 7 against the Oklahoma City Barons in the second round of the AHL playoffs on Wednesday after dropping a 2-1 decision to OKC on Monday night.
After the Barons got out to a 2-0 lead, Sven Baertschi scored the only goal for Utica—his third goal and eighth point in nine playoff games.
Jake Virtanen made his pro debut on Monday night, filling in for an injured Connor Bancks.
By all reports, Virtanen's premiere was a success. He got two shots on goal playing on a line with Hunter Shinkaruk and Mike Zalewski but wasn't able to get a puck past Richard Bachman, who was named first star.
Looks like Virtanen will stay in the lineup for Game 7, based on these comments from Utica coach Travis Green:
Jeff Paterson's reporting on Twitter that Virtanen got a regular shift for most of the game until the Comets shortened their bench in search of the tying goal that didn't come.
Of course, this is the final run for Oklahoma City—the Edmonton Oilers' farm team which will relocate to Bakersfield, California next season.
Today, all indications are that Todd McLellan is going to be named the new coach of the Oilers.
It seems surreal to me that McLellan's already back in Edmonton and ready to speak to the Canadian media. I just saw him one day ago, at the world championships' tournament-ending press conference here in Prague!
The rumours of a match between McLellan and the Oilers were pretty strong during the tournament. Jordan Eberle was cagey when asked whether or not he thought he was playing for his next coach, but it's certainly clear that McLellan brought out the best in Oilers on Team Canada—both Eberle and Taylor Hall, who was named one of the tournament's top forwards on the media all-star team.
Aaron Ekblad confirmed my suspicions that McLellan was reaching his players effectively when I asked him about McLellan after the gold-medal game:
He's a great coach. You notice it when you come in and we're down 3-0 to Sweden. He comes in and he's able to keep us calm, keep us motivated and help us turn the game around. That's the kind of coach that he is.
He's very in-depth. You learn so much from him—in video and all that stuff.
You really can't do too much wrong because of how perfect he is with explaining things—it's pretty awesome.
If McLellan can find a way to help Edmonton's typically hapless defence not "do too much wrong" next season, we could be looking at a very different team when the Canucks face the Oilers.
Coupled with the promotion of Bob Nicholson and the win at the draft lottery, it has been a great offseason so far for our neighbours to the north.
As far as the NHL's other sweetheart coaching candidate, the latest word is that Mike Babcock has met with San Jose and hopes to decide his future by midweek.
It's no secret that Babcock and Detroit general manager Ken Holland did a sit-down interview together with TSN while they were here in Prague.
I can add that I was behind Babcock and Holland—once again, together—heading through security into the rink before Saturday's semi-final games.
My guess is that now that Babcock has collected his offers, he and Babcock will use them as an indicator of his market value, then make an appropriate deal to keep him in Detroit.
The Toronto Star is suggesting that Babcock's deal in Detroit will be short term—and that the Toronto Maple Leafs will remain coachless after the two big fish land this week.
Dan Bylsma's probably the top guy on the second tier. He has been over here as well, working as an assistant under Columbus coach Todd Richards with Team USA. I didn't see Bylsma personally, but in Richards' bronze-medal press conference, he talked about how he'd been an assistant under Bylsma in Sochi in 2014 when the Americans got destroyed in their bronze-medal game at the Olympics—and how the two of them had learned from that experience how to better prepare their players to come out strong in a third-place game.
Like McLellan, Richards is also a very articulate coach who answers questions thoroughly and to the point. After a year of listening to Torts' rants, then a year of Willie Desjardins' "real good" analysis—and even going back to the vagaries of AV's non-news pressers when he was with the Canucks—I've really appreciated listening to coaches who share real information about their methods and strategies.
There may also be more of an opportunity to offer up detail here at the world championships than there is in the NHL, since the tournament is short and the opponents are changing daily. It's not like the tactics and strategies need to be kept in the vault in order to preserve the element of surprise.
Vancouver Canucks Blogger • 
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