Will Canada regret going with the hot hand for some roster selections?

The 4 Nations Face-Off tournament is upon us, as practices kicked off Monday, with the first game action coming between Team Canada and Team Sweden on Wednesday night. While the Canadian roster is absolutely loaded with talent, there’s been plenty of discussion about who didn’t get named to the roster.

Goaltending in particular is a giant question mark for head coach Jon Cooper’s team, as Adin Hill, Jordan Binnington and Samuel Montembeault got the call, meanwhile, one of the NHL’s best goaltenders, Logan Thompson, stays home with his 24-2-5 record, along with his .921 save percentage.

Up front, while the top-nine forwards were shoe-ins, some in the hockey world have questioned the likes of Travis Konecny, Brandon Hagel and Sam Bennett being included.

During Monday’s primetime episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli discussed Team Canada’s lineup, and if there will be any regret with going with the hot hands when naming the roster back in December.

Yaremchuk: Let’s get to Canada’s biggest weakness, and in a way Frank, it’s going to tie into my biggest roster regret for Canada. But, at the time of them naming this team, there was a little bit of, especially with the forwards and d-men, they picked a couple of hot hands. And, I was like – ok, but you have to remember this tournament’s not happening for two months.

Just because someone was hot in November, doesn’t mean they were going to stay hot until February. We’ve seen that with a guy like Sam Bennett. In between the pipes, they didn’t pick the hot hand though. They went with guys who they felt had a long run, a good reputation. Binnington, Hill and then Montembeault, who to be fair, did have a hot start. And, I would feel so much different about this team and their chances of beating Team USA if Logan Thompson was on the roster.

Again, he was the hot hand, and you didn’t really know if it was a for sure thing, maybe there were behind-the-scenes question marks.

Seravalli: Steve Valiquette mentioned that last week, that based on the experience that Pete DeBoer had with Logan Thompson that there was no way he was going to be on this team. I don’t know if that’s accurate or not, not saying it isn’t, just saying at least it helps give you some kind of perspective, or explain what might have happened. It’s also not like he’s going to be the savior.

Yaremchuk: Is that also your biggest weakness? Do you have a different player that should be here?

Seravalli: It’s the goaltending for me. It has to be. Canada has the fourth of four goaltending in this tournament. I think that’s probably by a pretty clear margin. But, I think there biggest roster regret is that recency bias you were talking about. The fact that Zach Hyman isn’t on this team, the fact that Mark Scheifele isn’t on this team. Look, we could knit-pick that to death. Who are you going to take out, Travis Konecny? Go through the roster. There’s lots of guys who you could pick at.

But, I think in such a short tournament, given what we we’re just talking about in terms of chemistry, I want as many pairs, or duos, as possible. And, I’d want Zach Hyman with Connor McDavid.

For more on Team Canada’s chances of winning it all, and full coverage of all four nations heading into the two-week tournament, watch the full episode below: