TORONTO – There are similarities between Ralph Krueger and Mike Babcock. Their international success as hockey coaches. Their cerebral, psychological approach to the game. Their wry humor in postgame press conferences.

And also water skiing.

Water skiing?

“We’re both fanatic water skiers, so we compare our best water ski results on a regular basis, and that’s all we’ve talked about when we run into each other here,” said Krueger, head coach of Team Europe at the World Cup of Hockey.

“He loves water skiing. I love water skiing. His daughter’s one of the best in the world, so I follow her,” said Babcock, head coach of Team Canada at the World Cup of Hockey.

Babcock and Krueger are meeting in the World Cup of Hockey final, a best of three series beginning on Tuesday night between the tournament host – a juggernaut that’s trailed 89 seconds in its four wins – and an underdog European team that was created for wayward players that didn’t have their nations represented in the tournament.

The job Babcock has done for Canada is extraordinary: Managing one of the greatest assemblages of talent ever (and their egos), fine-tuning their machine to the point of effortlessness on the ice. Canada won Olympic gold in Vancouver and Sochi with much of the same core of players, and has dominated the World Cup.

The job Krueger has done is equally extraordinary, and more apparent: Turning a disparate collection of players from over a half-dozen hockey nations in a winning team in a matter of weeks, shocking hockey nations like the United States and Sweden along the way.

And now, for his last trick, Krueger has a chance to score what would be one of the biggest upsets in sports history: Taking out Canada, which might not be completely implausible for Krueger.

Because he’s done it before. Because he has intimate knowledge of how Team Canada operates. Because Mike Babcock let him peek behind the curtain.

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Krueger has coached internationally since 1998. His tenure as head coach of the Swiss national team produced Olympic appearances in 2002, 2006 and 2010. He took a team with few offensive weapons and great goaltending, and he turned it into a dangerous tournament team. (Sound familiar, World Cup fans?)

It was in 2006, in Turin, when Krueger’s Swiss team scored “one of the most startling upsets of the modern Olympic era” according to the New York Times: a 2-0 win to eliminate Canada, in which goalie Martin Gerber made 49 saves. The team had only one NHL non-goalie on its roster.

“I never thought we could do that,” said Mark Streit, the Swiss captain, who is playing for Team Europe in the World Cup under Krueger, “but anything is possible in sports.”

View photos INNSBRUCK, AUSTRIA – MAY 12: Head coach Ralph Krueger of Switzerland talks to the referee during the game against Sweden in the IIHF World Men’s Championships quarterfinal game at the Olympic Hall on May 12, 2005 in Innsbruck, Austria. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) More

Four years later, it was almost possible again: The Swiss took Canada to a shootout in pool play during the Vancouver Olympics, but fell 3-2 to the hosts.

The Edmonton Oilers had seen enough. They hired Krueger later that year as an associate coach, and then named him head coach for the 2012-13 season.

His tenure would only last one season, going 19-22-7 in the lockout-shortened year. The team’s young core liked him. Management, apparently, didn’t. He was fired after the season by GM Craig MacTavish – infamously, over Skype.

Krueger was still feeling the sting of that firing 12 hours later when his phone rang.

It was Mike Babcock, with an offer.

Tom Renney, with whom Krueger coached in Edmonton, had suggested him as “a guy that might be available for the Olympics.” So Babcock reached out to ask if he would like to join the Team Canada brain trust for the Sochi Games. And Krueger didn’t hesitate to say yes, becoming “Canada’s secret weapon,” according to the Winnipeg Free Press.

In the process, he bonded with Babcock over analyzing the game and Team Canada, after only knowing him informally.

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