February 20th, 2025
JC Clemas
What joke will be flying around at the end of Thursday night’s contest: 51st state or 11th province?
Either way, residents of the winning country are sure to antagonize the loser to the best of their ability. And when national pride is on the line, it isn’t very difficult to bait the losing country into fits of anger.
That’s right! After 5 incredible games of the 4 Nations Face-Off (and also Finland/USA), we’ve reached the Thursday evening championship game between Canada and the USA. Who could’ve ever seen that finale coming?
Now, of course, the USA took the first contest against the Canadians on a Saturday night at the Bell Centre. Despite Jordan Binnington catching a lot of criticism from Canadian fans for the goals he let up (especially the one where Kyle Connor snuck it five-hole), the blame should really be placed on his opposing goaltender. Connor Hellebuyck saved 25 of the 26 shots he faced. Although Canada actually had more expected goals in the game, the USA left for their home nation with a 3-1 win under their belt, in large part thanks to their goaltender.
The real story of the game wasn’t the scoring, but the animosity between the two teams. Unless you’ve unplugged yourself and been on a spiritual quest or something since Saturday, you are fully aware of the 3 fights that occurred in the first 9 seconds of the game. First, it was Brandon Hagel vs Matthew Tkachuk, then Sam Bennett vs Brady Tkachuk, and finally Colton Parayko vs J.T. Miller. Almost anyone engaged in the online sports world has seen the clips. The videos were posted on social media by just about any sports company you can think of, and even garnered over 600,000 likes on Bleacher Report. With yet another brutally dull NBA All-Star Weekend coinciding with the tournament, hockey has been strangely in the spotlight for the past week. Turns out, the more punches you throw, the more attention you get. I think Will Ferrell figured that one out while playing for the Flint Tropics.
Following their Saturday night matchup, the Canadians and Americans strolled into Boston for Monday games against the Finns and Swedes, respectively. The Canadians were able to take care of Finland, but it was far too close for comfort. Canada got off to a 4-0 lead, including two goals from Nathan MacKinnon, and seemed to be guaranteed a date with destiny. Finland refused to go down without a fight. Esa Lindell scored their first goal with just under 7 minutes left, and two Mikael Granlund 6-on-5 goals later, the game was in “are-we-really-about-to-let-this-happen” territory. Thankfully, Sidney Crosby is still around to put out Canada’s fires, and the captain scored an empty-netter from centre ice to effectively put the game away. We won’t always have that luxury, so appreciate it now.
The Canadian victory clinched their spot in the championship game, and made the USA/Sweden game useless in tournament terms. The USA rested some of their banged-up players, like Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk, and the only really interesting thing to watch for was any bad blood between Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller. The anger that’s built up inside those two seems to have dissipated after Miller’s trade, as the game progressed without any incidents between the pair. The game itself was actually pretty close, with Sweden winning 2-1, but 0 goals in the last 2 periods and the meaningless-ness dwelling over the game made it a little sleepy. Samuel Ersson randomly had the best single-game goaltender performance of the tournament, saving 32/33 and likely leaving Flyers fans to wonder why he can do that against a juggernaut and not against most regular NHL teams.
So, the stage is set. While the Americans have home-ice advantage and the knowledge that they can beat Canada, Canada at least has the momentum going for them. They also will not have to face Quinn Hughes in the matchup. I was scared of his potential participation for two reasons: I don’t want to see Quinn exacerbating any injury, and I DO NOT WANT TO FACE QUINN HUGHES!
The goalie matchup is, once again, Binnington vs Hellebuyck. The edge there goes to the Americans by a pretty wild margin. Funny enough, though, we’ve actually seen Binnington perform better in the clutch than Hellebuyck in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Binnington has been the winning goaltender in a Stanley Cup Finals Game 7, and Hellebuyck is notorious for losing all his superpowers when the lights are the brightest. That hasn’t been the case so far this tournament, and I doubt Canadians can ever rely on this goaltending matchup to give them the victory, but hey, anything can happen. At least we know Binnington has been cut out for this moment before.
There are many question marks for Team USA due to an illness going around the locker room. Tage Thompson and Brett Pesce have been called into Boston as extras, and we currently do not know exactly what the USA’s lineup will look like tonight. If avoidable, there won’t be many changes to it from what we’ve seen so far. A notable loss to the Americans is Charlie McAvoy, whose injury was handled so terribly by USA medical staff that it ended up getting infected. Here are what the line combinations currently look like according to Daily Faceoff.
Guentzel - Matthews - Hughes
B. Tkachuk - Eichel - M. Tkachuk
Miller - Larkin - Boldy
Kreider - Trochek - Nelson
Slavin - Faber
Werenski - Sanderson
Hanifin - Fox
Auston Matthews is a player to watch for the USA. He’s been held to 0 goals and just 1 assist in the 2 games he has played in the tournament, and you have to think he’ll produce something at some point. Although, given his playoff performances, maybe that’s all he has in the tank. Also one to watch is his linemate, Jack Hughes, who has similarly been stunted so far. It would be a shock if that line just sits idly by as the rest of the team pulls their weight again.
As for Canada, the lines are essentially the same as they were against Finland, but Seth Jarvis draws into the lineup in place of Travis Konecny. Konecny deserves to be playing in this game, but we need Sam Bennett’s grit, and Jon Cooper is never going to scratch Anthony Cirelli. Here’s what Daily Faceoff has as their lines.
Point - McDavid - Stone
Crosby - MacKinnon - Reinhart
Hagel - Cirelli - Marner
Marchand - Bennett - Jarvis
Toews - Makar
Morrissey - Parayko
Sanheim - Doughty
I don’t even really have to say who to watch on this team. You already know, but I’ll state the obvious anyway. Connor McDavid. Nathan MacKinnon. Sidney Crosby. While Canada is outmatched in goal, defense, and arguably depth forwards, there is no debate on who is better in pure star power. Canada needs their stars to come out firing in this one if they want any hope of making their nation proud. We just have to hope that we don’t see a performance from McDavid like we saw in game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. If we do, it’ll be a long wait until the Olympics.
The game starts at 5 pm PST tonight. For the first time in a long, long time, all eyes will be on hockey. I’m not even sure Panthers/Oilers game 7 was as universally hyped up as this. Both countries are going to come out flying, and we have to hope they’ll deliver a close, exciting game that properly markets the sport to new viewers. You have to wonder if it’ll be another fight night, or if the players are too eager to score to take themselves off the ice for 5 minutes. There’s no real telling how this game is going to go, so I am absolutely thrilled to sit back and watch. Well, sit on the edge of my seat and watch. All I know is, if the USA walks away with the victory, I may have to shut my phone off for a couple of days.
Go Canada.