Duff talks to Babcock, Bylsma about Olympic Can-Am matchup.

Dan Bylsma finished his NHL playing career skating for Mike Babcock.

He cut his coaching teeth working in the farm system for Babcock’s Anaheim Ducks.

Then he moved to the big leagues and swiped the Stanley Cup from his mentor.

Soon, he’ll be looking to rip the Olympic gold medal from around Babcock’s neck.

It might be stretching a point to describe Pittsburgh Penguins coach Bylsma as a disciple of Detroit Red Wings coach Babcock.

“I’ve had several coaches and a couple of very good ones, and Mike was one those coaches who had an affect,” Bylsma said after he took another one from his old boss Saturday at Joe Louis Arena, a 4-1 win by his Penguins.

It wouldn’t be wrong to suggest that Bylsma has implemented much of what he learned under Babcock’s tutelage into his own gameplan.

“He’s a hard-driven guy, he drives his team, but he’s maybe the best coach for laying a foundation of how your team plays and setting a standard of how your team should play,” said Bylsma, a right-winger for Babcock’s 2002-03 Ducks club that came within a victory of capturing the Stanley Cup.

“I saw that firsthand in Anaheim, a team that built on that foundation, going to the finals and losing in Game 7.”

There are striking similarities in the paths followed and strategies implemented by the men who will lead the teams that played for the gold medal in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games — Canada (Babcock) and the United States (Bylsma) — into February’s Sochi Winter Olympiad.

Each were heart-and-soul players who got all they could out of their limited abilities.

“He was real smart about how he played,” Babcock said of Bylsma. “He maximized his potential.”

Both served lengthy apprenticeships in the hockey boondocks before earning the right to display their wares in the show. Like Babcock, Bylsma’s first pro coaching position was with the AHL’s Cincinnati Mighty Ducks, a farm club once shared Anaheim and Detroit.

“He put his time in,“Babcock said of Bylsma. “He was always a student of the game.

“He could always talk to people. I think he’s no different in the game as a coach. He can talk to people, he works real hard at it.

“He’s a smart guy and he’s had success.“

Ditto, you could say, regarding a descriptive of Babcock.

Bylsma pointed out that Babcock’s churned out success and reached the Stanley Cup final with a defensiveminded, grunt-filled roster in Anaheim and while in charge of Detroit’s high-end skill outfit.

Citing a roster that includes Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg and noting Byslma has Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, Babcock offered another parallel between these two coaching success stories.

“The other thing that’s real important about coaching and it’s no different than what I’ve had in Detroit – when they give you good players, you get a chance to be a lot better coach,“Babcock said.

Few sees the bond more clearly than Crosby, who won the Stanley Cup with Bylsma and Olympic gold under Babcock.

“The way they want to play is a pretty fast-paced game,” Crosby said. “They like to get D involved in the offence, and really take the play to the opponent.

“They don’t like to sit back and wait for things to happen. They like their teams to have energy and play a fast-paced game.”

In 2009, the last time they met with the entire hockey world’s eyes upon them, Bylsma’s Penguins dethroned Babcock’s Stanley Cup champion Wings.

He’d like nothing better than to turn in a repeat of that performance in Sochi.