The Americans sealed the first phase with a setback against Sweden; on Thursday they go all out for the title of the 4 Nations Face-Off
The United States closed out its participation in the Round Robin phase of the 4 Nations Face-Off in an unexpected and unwanted way on Monday night at TD Garden in Boston by falling 2-1 to Sweden, but there is something else that occupies the stars and stripes: Thursday night’s game against Canada for all the glory.
After the electrifying Saturday game at the Centre Bell in Montreal between the United States and Canada, which ended with a 3-1 victory for the Americans, which included three fights in the first nine seconds of the match, great goals, decisive hits and a reaffirmation of the rivalry on the ice between both nations, the table is set for a Thursday of screams in the framework of the Final.
Despite the USA taking the lead 35 seconds into the opening faceoff on a goal by Chris Kreider, who made his tournament debut for the Stars and Stripes, the Swedes tied the score at 13:39 with a goal by Gustav Nyquist, and turned the score around at 19:04 with a goal by Jesper Bratt. That was the summary of the goals and the long-awaited final was consummated.
“The only thing that went through my mind is that the first game (between the Canadians and the Americans) was a great hockey game,” said Mike Sullivan, head coach of the United States. “I think it’s great for hockey that there’s an opportunity for these two teams to meet again. Obviously, they both have star players in their lineups and I anticipate that the next match will be just as competitive or more so.”
However, on the Canadian side, which earned its right to compete for the tournament title after beating Finland 5-3 early on, things are being handled with a bit more restraint, taking away some of the morbidity from what many expected to be the decisive duel of the tournament, given what happened the first time the two teams met.
“I can’t sit here and say that’s the case,” said Canada head coach Jon Cooper when asked how motivated he was to face the U.S. again. “Even if the U.S. wasn’t in the final, we wouldn’t say, ‘Well, we wouldn’t want to be in the final either. ’ This is what we wanted and we’re here for that purpose and now it’s about winning one more game. And it happens to be against the team that beat us after the hectic we had last Saturday, so I think it’s a very interesting event to be televised.”
In Saturday’s match, 63 hits were recorded between the Canadians (29) and the Americans (34), a measure of how intense the duel was between the North American rivals, one of the reasons why the expectation of a rematch is high.
“That’s what everyone wanted, right?” said U.S. forward Jack Eichel. “We know they are going to be ready to play and I expect them to give their best, but I expect the same from us, so it is going to be a great game.”
The North Chelmsford, Massachusetts native added: “This is going to be like a seventh game, it is all for all. There will be a lot of desperate hockey, they will see everything that was experienced in the first game and more. I imagine. I think it will be great, I am looking forward to it.”
Saturday’s duel could have gone either way and, in addition to the obvious parity of the result, the game was very even in the three areas of the ice and the imbalance occurred by blinks of an eye on both sides, so it would be, according to some protagonists, very difficult for Thursday’s match to have a different tone because both rivals know each other well.
“Well, I think that in reality nothing much happened for either team and suddenly we gave them a couple of opportunities and they have a lot of talent and they will not forgive you,” said Canadian forward Nathan MacKinnon. “You know some of the best players in the league are sharing the ice, it was very close in terms of shots on goal, I mean, that shows how hard we were playing and it’s about not giving them the chances that we don’t want to give them, you know, clear-cut chances.”
The United States did without Auston Matthews, Charlie McAvoy and Matthew Tkachuk for the game against the Swedes and shuffled its pieces around on the ice, giving Jake Oettinger a chance to play in goal instead of Connor Hellebuyck, who started the first two games, but during Monday’s game Brady Tkachuk left the ice as a precaution due to an apparent injury.
But as U.S. forward Jack Hughes said: “I’m not a doctor, but I’m sure (the Tkachuk brothers) are going to play on Thursday, they’re hungry and excited for this game.”