It won’t have the identical significance or total attraction because the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and even the upcoming Olympic video games in 2026, however when the USA and Canada meet within the 4 Nations Face-off on Saturday night time (8 p.m. ET) in Montreal, it has an opportunity to be the most effective hockey video games we see all yr. Possibly even the perfect hockey video games of the yr.
The rivalry, expertise, intrigue and anticipation are all off the charts, and there’s going to be no scarcity of emotion each on and off the ice.
Together with the political backdrop that has resulted in Canadian sports activities followers booting the American Nationwide Anthem in current weeks — together with at this very event — just about each hockey sport between these two groups at all times appears to carry out some further depth.
However that is not all this sport has going for it.
First, there’s the expertise that can be on show.
Each rosters are completely loaded with high-end expertise and among the sport’s finest gamers. When the puck drops on Saturday night time, 14 of the top-25 point-producers within the NHL this season are going to be in uniform, and that quantity doesn’t even embody American ahead Auston Matthews (Toronto Maple Leafs) and defenseman Quinn Hughes (Vancouver Canucks) who’s sidelined from the event resulting from damage.
Matthews is among the league’s finest goal-scorers and a three-time goal-scoring champion whose numbers and manufacturing have been restricted this season by damage. Hughes is the NHL’s reigning Norris Trophy winner.
These tournaments are principally All-Star groups going up in opposition to one another, and these two rosters illustrate that completely.
Second, the gamers care about this.
So much.
As a result of it is a new event and doesn’t have the identical attraction as, say, the Olympics, there was some query as to how dedicated the gamers can be. However there’s something about representing their nation that brings out the perfect in these guys after they placed on that uniform. The primary two video games of the event this previous week have been fast-paced, bodily and intense, and people have been video games (Canada vs. Sweden; USA vs. Finland) that have been probably not main worldwide rivalries.
This sport is a significant rivalry.
This implies a lot to those guys that U.S. ahead Brady Tkachuk (Ottawa Senators) mentioned that is going to be the largest sport he has ever performed. These are massive phrases coming from an NHL participant.
There may be solely elite expertise on each rosters, additionally they have elite cage-rattlers and pests that may rapidly flip up the chaos consider a sport.
Brady Tkachuk and his brother, Matthew Tkachuk (Florida Panthers), are two of the perfect gamers within the league with regards to getting beneath the pores and skin of an opponent. USA head coach Mike Sullivan (Pittsburgh Penguins) has them enjoying on a line round Jack Eichel (Vegas Golden Knights) and it induced mayhem in Thursday’s 6-1 win over Finland.
To counter that, Canadian coach Jon Cooper (Tampa Bay Lightning) has put his two greatest pests, Brad Marchand (Boston Bruins) and Sam Bennett (Florida Panthers), on the identical line for Saturday’s sport.
If these two traces see the ice on the similar time, and in some unspecified time in the future it’s important to suppose they are going to, all bets are off for what can occur.
Ability. Bodily play. Emotion. The perfect gamers on this planet. This sport goes to have all of it.
