Team Canada announced Saturday afternoon that Head Coach Joel Quenneville was hospitalized last night and will return home as soon as he is well enough to travel.
General Manager Jim Nill announced that Quenneville will be replaced by one of his assistants, either Tom Renney or Mike Babcock.
Renney holds the inside track, having coached Canada at the 1994 Olympic Winter Games in Lillehammer, and three World Championships (1995, 1996, 2000). Babcock's international experience comes in the form of a head coaching assignment at the 1997 IIHF World Junior Championships, at which Canada won gold.
Nill will make his decision on the new head coach later tonight. He also suggested a third coach, to act as assistant, will be brought in from Canada as soon as possible.
Quenneville had not been feeling well since arriving in Prague, suffering from lack of sleep that has become exhaustion. He is being cared for by team doctors at a local hospital and is being sedated until he is well enough rested to act under his own strength again.