CALGARY -- That the decision was painful was evident, as Dan Church was in tears by the end of the conversation. His stated reason for abruptly resigning as head coach of Canadas Olympic womens hockey team was he felt there were doubts about his ability to coach the team to Olympic gold in February. "If there isnt confidence in what Im doing, I need to step aside and let the team move on," Church told The Canadian Press in a phone interview Thursday. "Im heartbroken, to be honest, about the whole situation. Im sad I cant finish this journey." Church didnt specify whether it was players or Hockey Canada who doubted his competence as a coach. "Just discussions Id had over the last few days made that apparent, in some meetings Id had with leadership," Church said. "I think it was just difference of opinion on the direction we were headed. "In the end, I just decided if Im getting in the way of where the team needs to go, I need to step aside and let them continue on in the process." That bombshell comes less than two months before the opening ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia. Church was expected to announce his 21-player Olympic roster before the end of December. Church left Calgary on Thursday morning without addressing the players and flew to Toronto, where he lives with his wife Regan. Canada hosted the U.S. women in Calgary at night. "I was in shock. It was unexpected," veteran forward Caroline Ouellette said. "I appreciate Dan. I always have. I have a lot of respect for him. I think hes done a lot of great things for our team since 2011 when he took over as head coach." The Canadian women will attempt to win a fourth straight gold medal in Sochi after victories in 2002, 2006 and 2010. Church coached Canada to a womens world title in April, 2012. The 40-year-old from Toronto was rewarded with a two-year contract to coach for the 2013 world champions and the Winter Olympics. When asked if Hockey Canada tried to convince him to stay or reverse his decision Thursday, Church replied, "No, they did not." "Dan has decided to resign for personal reasons," Hockey Canadas chief operating officer Scott Smith said at news conference Thursday. "Hes put a tremendous amount of work into this and we respect the decision hes made." Assistant coaches Danielle Goyette, a former national team player, and Lisa Haley will co-coach until a new coach is named, Smith said. "Time certainly is of the essence," Smith said. "This decision came upon us in the last few hours and were going to react as quickly as possible. Melody Davidson coached the Canadian women to Olympic gold in both 2006 and 2010. She became Hockey Canadas female head scout and serves in a general managers role for the national team. Davidson was adamant Thursday she would not step into the breach. "I stepped down in 2010 for a reason," Davidson said. "I left because it was time to be off that bench and Im comfortable in the role I can play off the ice." "I think theres some real good candidates there who can help us and bring a different voice than mine. Ill definitely support whatever direction we go in, but its not going to involve me as part of the coaching staff." The reality is the pool of Canadians who have experience coaching international womens teams is shallow. Davidson says she could identify with Churchs feelings as she nearly quit when Canada lost the 2009 world championship final to the U.S. prior to the 2010 Olympics. "The Olympics is overwhelming at times," she said. "Sometimes you get caught up in that. Maybe Dan couldnt feel he could envision something different." Davidson didnt think Church was in over his head as head coach of the team. "Definitely not," she said. Haley says she did not question Churchs decisions. "In my opinion, Dan has done and said everything with the intention of this team winning a gold medal," Haley said. "I trusted his decisions all along when Ive gotten the chance to coach with him over the years. "Hes gotten a lot of things right. Right now, what we want to do is trust this decision that this is whats best for the team and hopefully we can win him that gold medal." Church and Davidson invited 27 women to try out for the Olympic team. Theyve been training full time in Calgary since August. Church cut forward Jenelle Kohanchuk and defenders Tessa Bonhomme and Brigette Lacquette in November. Two more forwards and a defenceman will be released when the Olympic team in named. The Canadian women lost 3-2 to the U.S. in the final of this years world championship in Ottawa, but were on a three-game winning streak against their archrivals until Thursday night. With Goyette and Haley behind the bench, Canada lost 5-1 to the U.S in the third exhibition game between the two countries this winter. In their previous meeting at the Four Nations Cup in November, Canada doubled the Americans 4-2. Canada went 4-0 to win that international tournament. The women were 10-11 against male teams in the Alberta Midget Hockey League and have played 31 games since September. "All I can say is I gave 100 per cent effort in everything I did this year," Church said. "I worked tirelessly. "I put in all the hours to be successful and I believe we were moving in the right direction as a team. We had reached all the benchmarks at the times we had wanted and winning all of our games against the U.S., winning at Four Nations. "While we had struggled a little bit with the midget results, wed played with a lot of injuries to our lineup and a really tough November schedule. "Its disappointing to not feel theres confidence in what youre doing." Hes coached the York University womens hockey team for nine seasons. His father died of cancer in January at age 70, but Church said his decision was not related to health or family issues. Church coached the Canadas under-18 womens team to a world champoinship in 2010. He was an assistant coach to Ryan Walter on the womens team that took silver at the 2011 world championship. With Church behind the bench at the 2012 world championships in Burlington, Vt., Canada suffered a worst-ever 9-2 loss to the U.S. women to open that tournament, but rebounded with a 5-4 overtime win in the final for the countrys first world title since 2007. The U.S. has won four of the last five world championships. Canada and the U.S. will meet again Dec. 20 in Grand Forks, N.D., Dec. 28 in St. Paul, Minn., and Dec. 30 in Toronto.
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Teemu Selanne Jersey . Andrew Luck couldnt believe his ears. Colts fans couldnt believe the scoreboard, and the Kansas City Chiefs couldnt believe their incredibly bad luck.PHILADELPHIA -- Despite a poorly timed losing streak, Maple Leafs head coach Randy Carlyle still believes Toronto can turn its season around before its too late. The Leafs dropped a 4-2 decision on Friday to the Philadelphia Flyers, their seventh straight loss, and remain outside of a post-season berth. Carlyle, however, said that his team just needs to clean up the little things and they should be fine with seven games remaining in the regular season. "Theyve proven to us before that they can play the game at a high level," said Carlyle. "If we can tidy up the turnover situation...we got to win more one-on-one battles for the puck. Those are the things at this juncture in the season thats imperative, that we win those battles. And right now were not winning enough." Leafs forward James van Riemsdyk, who scored his 29th goal of the season on Friday, agreed with his coach. "I think our work ethic has been good, we havent quit," said van Riemsdyk. "Weve played hard to the end, sometimes were just not getting the bounces." Vinny Lecavalier, Scott Hartnell, Claude Giroux and Wayne Simmonds scored for the Flyers, while goaltender Steve Mason stopped 32 shots for the win. David Bolland also scored for the Leafs and Jonathan Bernier made 25 saves in defeat. Lecavalier opened the scoring for Philadelphia 5:35 into the first period as Toronto tried to kill off 1:36 of a 5-on-3 power play. Leafs defenceman Dion Phaneuf was forced to take the face-off after centre Jay McClement was tossed from the draw. After Phaneuf lost the faceoff to Giroux, Lecavalier one timed the puck past Bernier after being set up by defenceman Kimmmo Timonen.dddddddddddd "They score a five-on-three goal, our centre gets kicked out, I dont know if we could have covered it differently," said Carlyle. Van Riemsdyk responded for Toronto just four seconds into the second period, tying the NHL record for the fastest goal to start a period. After centre Tyler Bozak won the draw forward, van Riemsdyk skated ahead and put the puck past Mason to even the score. "Bozie made the play pretty much, he decided he was going to push it ahead," said van Riemsdyk. "He made a great play and I just fired it on net." "It was a big spark," Carlyle said of the goal. "We had a lot of momentum for our hockey club but we just werent able to carry it through." Hartnell killed any Toronto momentum when he gave Philadelphia the lead back at 11:03 of the second after a backhand tip on a shot from Timonen. Giroux made it 3-1 at 4:55 of the third period when he fired a slapper from the circle over Berniers right shoulder. Bolland brought the Leafs within a goal at 6:18. Simmonds, however, put the game out of reach at 12:39. "I look at it as we came here to work, we worked hard," said Carlyle. "Were we smart enough in some areas? No. But we gave ourselves a chance." Toronto is in a four-way tie for the two wild card spots in the Eastern Conference, but sit outside a post-season position because of playing more games than any of the other three clubs. One of those teams is the Detroit Red Wings, who the Leafs will face on Saturday. Carlyle knows a win over the Red Wings is as big as it gets. "We have an opportunity tomorrow night, its the biggest game of the year."
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