Canada’s biggest stars showed up to send team to 4 Nations Face-Off final
Goaltender Jordan Binnington entered Monday’s 4 Nations Face-Off matinee bout tied for third in scoring on Team Canada.
After two games, scoring was an issue for a team most considered to be the deepest offensively. Sidney Crosby had three assists in the opener, but no goals overall. Nathan MacKinnon scored the first goal of the tournament and then had nothing to show for after that. Sam Reinhart and Brayden Point – two high-end offensive producers – had also been extra quiet.
So everything seemed to change when MacKinnon and Connor McDavid scored 46 seconds apart early in the opening period. Point then snagged a rebound goal at 13:02 to make it a 3-0 game, taking any steam Finland would have out of the equation.
That’s exactly the type of response Canada needed after the disappointing 2-1 loss to the United States on Saturday. That game started so well, with McDavid scoring early on after the trio of fights. But the American back end and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck were perfect the rest of the way as Canada struggled to generate quality chances.
A quick re-shuffling of Canada’s lines seemed to really make a difference. Mitch Marner couldn’t seem to generate much with McDavid – swapping him out with Point seemed to wake up the top line. Getting Cale Makar back was huge, too. While he didn’t do much on the scoresheet, his mix of elite skating and high-end decision-making was a big boost from the blueline.
Overall, it felt like everyone was extra motivated on Monday. Canada didn’t need any extra oomph to get started in that massive game against the Americans, but with a spot in the title game on the line, there was no room for error against Finland. Canada made sure to push hard and force the battered Finnish blueline to get moving early and it just proved to be too overwhelming.
From the get-go, that’s what Canada needed to do. They made sure to force Sweden to get their legs moving in Game 1, and in the first period, it really paid off for Canada. But then they took the foot off the gas and just fell apart. In the game against the United States, they just couldn’t get creative enough to beat USA’s stacked blueline.
For McDavid, in particular, Monday was a tremendous showing. He had two points heading into the game but had generally been just fine, at best. It’s hard not to wonder what he could have done with Zach Hyman reading his mind all game long – alas. With a goal and an assist in the first period alone, McDavid had the type of big game many have been hoping for this entire tournament – and for the past decade, really, given we’ve been robbed from seeing him in best-on-best competition.
And then, there’s Crosby. Even when he wasn’t in the spotlight all game long, he found a way to secure another game-changing moment in a Canadian uniform. With Finland taking full control in the final two minutes, and making it a one-goal game, Crosby scored an empty-netter to secure the victory and send Canada to the final. That’s exactly the type of moment Crosby has become known for – showing up in tense moments when they need him most.
Canada’s three most important forwards – Crosby, MacKinnon and McDavid – all had much better games, and the full-team effort at both ends helped them prevail.
Canada’s ability to smother Finland in their own zone made them so dangerous, but the United States will be a completely different animal. Canada knows that after the hard-fought battle against the Americans – which, if you dig into the analytics, was still a solid game from Canada, for the most part. They just couldn’t figure out how to do the most important thing you need to do in a hockey game – and that’s score a goal.
Both Canada and the United States will get two days of rest before going head-to-head in a medal game for the first time in a best-on-best event since 2010. The United States has come along way since then, and Saturday’s effort was a perfect example of that.
If Canada wants to keep its status as the top team in international hockey, their big stars will need to be exactly that when push comes to shove.
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