The Need To Knows
- What is it?: A round robin tournament created by the NHL to temporarily replace the NHL All-Star game.
- Where is it being played?: The Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, and TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts
- Who is playing?: Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States of America
- Where to Watch it: See Schedule down the page. It alternates between ESPN and Turner networks depending on the gameday.
- What is it being played for?: If you’re looking for a philosophy reason, the Four Nations Faceoff is being played as part of a broader commitment to the players and fans on behalf of the NHL to enter the wider hockey-sphere without dragging out the stupid plastic trophy nobody cared about last time, and hopefully not a bone thrown to their players in case the Milan Winter Olympics fails to meet their nebulous standard of quality. As for a physical thing to be played for? How about this sweet trophy?
Kraken at the 4 Nations Faceoff
The Kraken are in an unusual place in that they actually traded into this tournament. Forward Kaapo Kakko will be the sole representative for the Seattle Kraken at the Four Nations Tournament, for the nation of Finland.
To which our response is a hearty OI MAAMME, SUOMI, SYNNYINMAAAAA-
Tournament Preview
Canada – Battle for a bleeding soul
- Strengths: Overwhelming Skating Talent Advantage. Only the USA compares.
- Weaknesses: The gulf in performance between their skaters and their goaltenders is big enough to run a train station in.
You’d think that Canada, the premiere country when it comes to Ice Hockey, would be walking into this tournament with a level of confidence and swagger that rivals the average American ego, but instead it feels like Canada sort of needs this win. Even if only to start believing in their country’s program again.
The obvious selling point for Team Canada as champion is the mere fact that Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby, at long last, finally get to wear the Red Maple Leaf together; the premiere talent of the sport of the 2000’s and the premiere talent of the modern day, who have been denied the chance to join forces at the international level by the treachery of their own CBA finally getting to right that wrong. Complimenting that one-two punch of talent is the absolute horde of forward talent they happen to bring along with them; that one two punch can be augmented by any combination of Nathan MacKinnon, Sam Reinhart, Mitch Marner, Mark Stone, Brad Marchand, Seth Jarvis, Travis Konecny, and Brandon Hagel as potential linemates.
Their Defense? Pretty solid too! I don’t love Parayko and Shea Theodore necessarily, but the rest seem particularly geared towards advancing the puck as quickly and efficiently as humanly possible. Canada’s overwhelming advantage in this tournament will be this embarrassment of riches in the five players moving around on the ice, and the expectation that the talent gap at both forward and defense in comparison to the rest of the tournament is good enough to get them into the finals.
Because as good as their skating corps is, and it is a world class skating corps…their goaltenders are a clear weak link.
Montembeault, Binnington, and Hill have all been hovering around .900 in SV% all year, and have been enormously solvable in just about every game they’ve been part of. Even worse, Washington’s Logan Thompson was absolutely willing and available as a choice for Team Canada, and for whatever reason…they just decided they didn’t need him because their general managers didn’t like him? Even if he’s head and shoulders better than the three goalies they picked??
It’s such a bizarre decision that highlights a problem Team Canada has been inflicting on their fans for years at this point; a fundamental arrogance in the sheer quality of their own talent that allows them to believe that their inherent Canadian hockey-ness will allow them to overcome the fact that they keep making weird decisions with their hockey club.
I mean, with the roster they have, it should be far more enough to get them to the championship, but man it feels weird to see the expected best country in the world keep tying a hand behind their backs for reasons of pride.
Prediction:
Canada shows up to every ice hockey tournament the favorite until proven otherwise, and frankly the squad as it stands is more than good enough to justify that. By all accounts, this should be a team playing until the very end based on it’s forward corps alone.
But if it for some reason doesn’t? Rev up those referendums!
Finland – Doing more with less
- Strengths: Center depth, Possession game, Team Chemistry is high, Penalty Killers, Goaltending, Has a Kraken player!
- Weaknesses: Injury Bug actively conspiring against them, defense being it’s most telling victim.
Suomi has the smallest pool of players to work with in this tournament, and in some cases that’s a good thing; with such a limited stock of players, you can’t really overthink your decisions, and Finland didn’t see a reason to. Their center depth is perfect for the kind of game Finland usually likes playing; a ferocious group of 2-way players that compliment the wingers they’ve brought to the dance. Making it even better is that a number of players come to the tournament with built-in chemistry; Lehkonen and Rantanen played on the same line in Colorado, Granlund and Hintz play together in Dallas (this also would’ve applied to Miro Heiskanen had he been able to play), Valikmaki and Maata play together in Utah, Loustarinen and Lundell play together in Florida, and many of them have played together at IIHF tournaments, either World Juniors or World Championships, in some form or another over the last decade. If there is an x-factor for the Finns, it is that chemistry of knowing their team on a level perhaps only matched by the Swedes.
Unfortunately, where having a small talent pool can hurt you is that if there are holes in your country’s current crop, it can be really painful, and injuries hurt way, way more than they would a bigger country. Having Miro Heiskanen out, for example, is devastating for a defensive corps that I personally find to be one of the weakest of the entire tournament. Mikkola and Lindell are perfectly good, even great defenders! After that? Olli Maata and Rasmus Ristolainen as a pairing seems like the stuff of nightmares, and the remaining defenders are solid if unspectacular depth options in a tournament flooded with spectacular blueliners. This puts them, at least from my view, at a significant disadvantage that their otherwise strong forward corps may have to pick up the slack.
It’s gotten to the point that their opening practice already had them down a couple of players.
If this can be mitigated, and it may have to be, it must be mitigated by goaltending. Finland thankfully is a nation that prides itself on just such a position, and the players they’ve brought are enormously talented…but on enormously bad teams. On one hand, maybe all three of their goalies being on teams struggling to stay relevant has uniquely prepared to put up with the particular issues that their defense may inflict upon them from their work in this NHL season. If not, however…it’ll just be another rock bringing them to the bottom if they can’t work hard enough to overcome it.
Prediction
As much as I appreciate the Finnish system for what it is and the chemistry the team comes pre-loaded with, the reality Leijonat faces is that they are coming into this tournament with a lot of holes that the other teams just don’t have right now through no fault of their own; the injury bug showed up as a B-movie monster on this poor team, and in a tournament packed with this much talent? It could be the difference for the Finns, unfortunately.
Sweden – Sams’ Klubb
- Strengths: Goaltending, Winger Depth, System Play
- Weaknesses: Inconsistent Center Depth, Lack of access to better players thanks to rotten injury luck
Tre Kronor gave Sweden’s World Championships coach Sam Hallam complete control over the roster they would be bringing to the 4 Nations Faceoff, and from what it looks like, he definitely put together a world class list of Swedes to play for him…with a couple of caveats.
Versatility remains the major strength of the Swedes; their defense corps is as deep as it’s ever been and capable of doing a little bit of everything; their veteran corps of forwards, most of whom are either big-time goalscorers or defensive stalwarts, has been augmented by a spry young group of impressive youngsters who compliment them beautifully; something that Sweden’s historically strong systems at the IIHF levels tend to appreciate.
Unfortunately, Injury hurt and has continued to hurt Tre Kronor just a little bit more than other teams; Hampus Lindholm being out means they’re missing one of the better defenders available to them, Jacob Markstrom’s out entirely and Ullmark only recently coming back from a recent injury, so it seems like Tre Kronor is going to be tied at the hip to Minnesota Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson. Gustavsson is absolutely worthy of the crest, he’s just not going to be one of the heads on a goaltending hydra like he was expected to be when the tournament rosters were first announced.
Further, there are some players that, for whatever reason, were either not immediately included in their roster that were able to sneak on thanks to said injuries like Rickard Rakell, who probably should’ve been on that roster to begin with, and mysterious omissions like William Eklund of the San Jose Sharks; one of the few players on that roster with their head above water possession-wise and one of the top 10 skaters from Sweden in the NHL.
For me, what makes or breaks them right now is their depth at center. I think Eriksson-Ek, Pettersson, Zibanejad, and Carlsson are great players who absolutely deserve their spots on this roster! Hell, even if you’re concerned about the down years of their squads, you can probably expect them to pick things up majorly thanks to playing with winger talent like William Nylander or Filip Forsberg.
For me, the issue is that a couple of them are coming out of uniquely poor situations and that may have affected the way they play. Pettersson and Zibanejad in particular need this summer vacation of a tournament more than anybody thanks to the way their particular NHL seasons have gone, perhaps only matched by Leo Carlsson, who is a comparative baby to the rest of this group, who may need to remind himself there are better things in life than Anaheim.
Prediction
Canada and the USA are the clear favorites, but if there’s a team that could spoil either one of them, you’re probably looking at it. Sweden is both deep, mostly healthy, and their issues are at best nitpicks. A lot of this will be on Sam Hallam to adjust to the NHL ruleset that the 4 Nations will be held under, but I get the distinct feeling Sweden is going to make tomorrow’s opening game a major point of pride for themselves.
USA – Unintentionally Starting Allsortsas#!t
- Strengths: Overwhelming Scoring Talent, Goaltending.
- Weaknesses: Coaching may put a limiter on just how good they actually are
I understand that due to the mess that is the modern internet, there’s a very very slim chance an NHL player is ever going to read my writing, but if a member of Team USA happens to fall onto this platform and onto this blog, I would like to just give you some advance warning about your reception when you play in Montreal; It isn’t you, man.
Thanks to some what I am going to call outside circumstances beyond the control of the NHL; Team USA better be ready for some of the iciest responses they have ever gotten in international play. While I absolutely get why, the US will likely be able overcome it quickly, as this might be one of the most talented teams the United States of America has ever put out onto a sheet of ice. The Forward corps is just killer shooter and killer playmaker after killer shooter and killer playmaker, they are fast, they are goalscorers, they’ve even got some punk-assery with the Tkachuks as insurance for such a thing if the need arises. Sure, Brock Nelson maybe isn’t the best choice over Jason Robertson or Cole Caufield, but for what he’ll be playing for, he’s fine.
It still would’ve been nice to have Robertson.
Losing Quinn Hughes so close to the tournament was a major blow to the American Blueline, but Jake Sanderson has been having an otherwise strong year in Ottawa, so I can at least still say that Team USA’s defense is still very, very formidable; both responsible in their own end and able to leave their own end quickly and easily; in spite of whatever you may feel about McAvoy in a Bruins uniform right now. But of course, the centerpiece jewel in the USA’s crown is their goaltending; Connor Hellebuyck, who has been absolutely lights out in Winnipeg, and will almost certainly play most of this tournament unless Finland or Sweden have collapsed in on themselves and Oettinger/Swayman can find time to play.
So with a roster this good, this complete, and with the all-important position of goaltender being an active strength for the Americans, is there any crack in their armor? Is there anything that might hold them up?
For me, the only thing I can really come back to that could feasibly hold Team USA back is…maybe coaching?
Is some of this some leftover trauma from the USA’s WCoH back in 2016 being such an utter disaster? Sure! Am I still mad at David Quinn for blowing the United States’ chances at Gold against Slovakia at the 2022 Winter Olympics? A little bit! Are either of those men the head coach? No. But they do have input! As such, I do not trust them!
Otherwise, Team USA will be much like a mirror of Team Canada; so laden down with talent that it may not matter if they have any issues.
Tournament Schedule
Round Robin Schedule:
- Wednesday, Feb. 12
- Canada vs. Sweden, 5pm PST; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS
- Thursday, Feb. 13
- United States vs. Finland, 5pm PST; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS
- Saturday, Feb. 15
- Finland vs. Sweden, 10am PST; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS
- United States vs. Canada, 5pm PST; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS
- Monday, Feb. 17
- Canada vs. Finland, 10am PST; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS
- Sweden vs. United States, 5pm PST; MAX, truTV, TNT, SN, TVAS
- Thursday, Feb. 20
- Championship Game, 5pm PST; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS
From here? All we can ask for now is a hearty good luck to all teams, and we hope Kaapo Kakko has a wonderful tournament!