What USA needs to do to beat Canada in 4 Nations final
We’re getting a rematch to decide who wins the 4 Nations Face-Off – and the United States wants to sweep the series against Team Canada.
USA took home the 3-1 win back in Montreal on Saturday, earning them a berth in the title fight later tonight. One thing they did well was force Canada to play more from the outside, and not in tight like they managed to do against Sweden and eventually Finland.
On the latest episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli talked about what the Americans need to do to win gold in the wake of Charlie McAvoy’s injury:
Tyler Yaremchuk: “On the U.S. side, what I wrote down as my key to victory, Frank, was this blue line without Charlie McAvoy. Can you just keep everything to the outside? Keep Canada to more medium danger chances than high danger chances. We talked about it yesterday. Connor Hellebuck hasn’t been beaten on a medium-danger chance in this entire tournament. The only goal Canada scored a high danger look from Connor McDavid. So how can this USA blueline keep this Canada attack to the outside?”
Frank Seravalli: “Well, that was one of the big topics of conversation for Jon Cooper two days ago. He mentioned that Canada was really good in the first 180 feet of the ice. It was the last 20 that they couldn’t solve the U.S. team. I think the U.S. has defended critically well.
“We had Jon Goyens come on Monday to break down the video of that team defending in quadrants. They made Canada think. And (Brad) Marchand and (Sidney) Crosby and (Connor) McDavid all talked about this game on Saturday being the fastest game that they’ve ever played. Well, if you’ve got the fastest game you’ve ever played and the Americans are presenting something a little bit different and making you think at the same time, I’m sure they spent a ton of time working through what this would look like to try and counterbalance that.
“But the key for the U.S. is Connor Hellebuyck has saved everything that he’s seen. We had an unreal view at Bell Centre, kind of tipping over and looking straight down and you could see the angle that shots were coming in from. He could see it all. And with that being the case – it’s not to say he made it look easy because you’re still playing against some of the best players in the world. But it didn’t look like there’s been a single moment so far in the entire tournament that Connor Hellebuyck has not been in complete control. And with that being the case, you’d have to feel pretty good if you’re the U. S. tonight.”
You can watch the full episode below:
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