from Jeff Neiburg of the Philadelphia Daily News,

The village of Warburg, Alberta, is home to 789 people, according to Canadian census data from 2011. Just under 400 of them are men.

What are the odds, then, that two boys from that town grow up and one day coach against each other in the National Hockey League?

The math would show that it's, well . . . pretty improbable, all things considered.

"It's a coaching hotbed, Warburg," Dallas Stars coach Lindy Ruff said with a laugh after Tuesday's morning skate at Wells Fargo Center.

Flyers coach Dave Hakstol, 47, and Dallas' Ruff, 55, were raised on the rustic prairie land in central Alberta. Hockey was their way out of the area, which usually breeds generations of farmers and manual laborers.

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