The tournament will shift to Boston’s TD Garden next week for the semifinals and final.
International hockey has given us some of the most iconic moments in the history of the sport.
Paul Henderson’s goal for Canada to capture the Summit Series against the Soviet Union in 1972. Mike Eruzione’s eventual winning goal and the interminable final minutes in the Americans’ “Miracle on Ice” upset of the Soviets in 1980. The Wayne Gretzky-to-Mario Lemieux goal to lift Canada to victory in the Canada Cup in 1987. Sidney Crosby’s Golden Goal to beat the U.S. in the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver.
Will the Four Nations Faceoff – which kicked off with Canada vs. Sweden on Wednesday in Montreal – produce a moment as impactful as any of those? Probably not. There is no David v. Goliath setup, as there was in the ’80 Olympics, long before the NHL got into the Olympic mix. And while this is best-on-best, it’s not best-on-all-the-best, not with the hastily thrown together tourney limiting the teams to the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Finland and leaving out Czechia and Russia.
But it promises to be a fun and interesting appetizer to the NHL’s return participation in next winter’s Olympics.
As the tourney, which shifts from Montreal to Boston next week for the semifinals and final, gets underway, here are five things we’re looking for, viewed just a bit by our usual parochial Boston viewpoint:
1. What can this tournament do for Brad Marchand?
In the 2016 World Cup of Hockey – the last true best-on-best tourney – Marchand informed the hockey world (and perhaps most importantly, himself) that he could play and compete with and against the top talent on the planet. In five of the next six years, he posted no fewer than 80 points, the outlier being the COVID-shortened season of 2020-21. With Marchand approaching his 37th birthday in May, don’t expect him to suddenly be the Marchand of 2016. But a tourney like this could certainly provide a mental boost for the Bruins’ stretch run for a heart-and-soul captain who has endured the team’s toughest season in almost a decade.
Or perhaps playing with some of the best players in the world will whet his appetite for maybe moving on to a true contender, something the Bruins are not at the moment. He’s been practicing on a line with Brayden Point and Seth Jarvis, but it would be fun to see him play with his Nova Scotia compadres Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon, at least for a few shifts.
It’s hard to picture Marchand in a different uniform but it remains a possibility as long as he has no contract extension.
2. Can Elias Lindholm continue to find his game?
No one wants to hear this, but the thus-far underachieving big free-agent signing was starting to play closer to his identity while playing on a more defensive-minded line with Marchand and Charlie Coyle. The question is whether there is more offense in him.
For whatever reason, he did not work well with David Pastrnak, which is a problem considering he was signed to a seven-year deal at $7.75 million per season to do that. But there has to be more there. Granted, he may not be the 42-40-82 producer he was when he played with Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk. But the next year after those stars left, he had 22-42-64 totals. That shouldn’t be out of the question for Lindholm. At the moment, his role with Team Sweden doesn’t appear to be a big one. In pre-tourney practices, he’s been centering a fourth line between Viktor Arvidsson and Gus Nyquist. But things can change quickly in a short tourney.
3. What will Charlie McAvoy bring to Team USA?
At the moment, it looks like power-play duty has been taken off his plate, with Adam Fox and Zach Werenski being the quarterbacks on the two units, but he’s been practicing on the top penalty-killing unit.
It also appears that his father-in-law, USA head coach Mike Sullivan, will be employing him in a more defensive-minded role at 5-on-5 as he’s been paired in practices with Werenski, who is currently pushing Cale Makar for the Norris Trophy. It’s a good bet that they’ll want McAvoy to protect the house while Werenski pushes it offensively. But don’t bet against McAvoy stepping beyond that role. He’s excelled in international competition, most notably in the 2017 World Junior Championships in which he was one of the brightest lights in Team USA’s run to the gold.
4. Can Canada’s goaltending hold up?
With Connor McDavid, MacKinnon and Crosby, the future 51st staters (I kid, I kid) have some incredible firepower. When they need a goal, they can unite McDavid, MacKinnon and Crosby like Canada did with Gretzky, Lemieux and Dale Hawerchuk back in the ’87 Canada Cup. But will their netminders be able to keep the puck out against, say, an American squad that boasts Auston Matthews, Jack Eichel and Kyle Connor, to name a few. Adin Hill, Jordan Binnington and Sam Montembault are all capable netminders. Hill and Binnington both have Stanley Cups, not a small feat. But the trio doesn’t instill the fear that a threesome of Roy, Brodeur and Belfour would. This is not the golden age of Canadian goaltending. Binnington has been named the starter against Sweden.
5. How can Finland hang?
If you’re looking for an underdog for which to root, it is Suomi. Decimated by injuries – the biggest one being stud defenseman Miro Heiskanen – Finland practiced on Monday with just 11 skaters, though they’ll be ready with a full lineup. Even the goaltending, long a Finnish strong suit, is not what it has been in the past. Expected starter Juuse Saros is having for him a down season (.899 save percentage). But the Finns have the new gold standard in 200-foot play, Sasha Barkov, as well as sharpshooter Patrik Laine and star wing Mikko Rantanen. Team USA will immediately find out what the Finns have when its opens up tourney play against them on Thursday in Montreal.
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