Time will tell whether or not the first ever 4 Nations Face-Off will be successful.
Over the next eight days, Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden will hit the ice in Montreal and Boston for the first best-on-best tournament involving NHL players since the World Cup of Hockey in 2015. Long live Team North America.
The new tournament kicks off just hours from now at 6:00 PM MST with Canada facing Sweden — a game featuring all three Edmonton Oilers representatives: Connor McDavid, Mattias Ekholm and Viktor Arvidsson.
The jury truly feels out on whether or not the tournament will be a success. For one, skeptics feel it’s light on teams, missing Russia due to their ongoing war on Ukraine, while other countries like Czechia, Germany and others have no representation solely because the NHL didn’t feel like adding them into the mix. Others, meanwhile, are just excited to see some form of best-on-best, and for the chance to see McDavid and Sidney Crosby skate together.
Daily Faceoff dove into each of the four teams represented over the last week with writers breaking down each teams offence, defence and goaltending, its coaching while looking at one burning question and making a prediction for how the team would finish.
Canada – Matt Larkin
There’s no telling how good Canada’s offence can be, Larkin opined, summating the likes of McDavid, Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar et all being serious scoring threats.
“Whichever forward line Canada rolls out, it will have some serious scoring threats,” Larkin wrote. “Even projected fourth-liner Konecny averages more than a point per game this season.”
Canada’s blue line doesn’t jump out to Larkin as an area of strength, nor is the goaltending ranks. Questions of roster selection continue to muddy the waters, considering the countries best goaltender this year, Logan Thompson, was left off the team. Coaching, meanwhile, is a strong suit in thanks to Jon Cooper running the bench.
Larkin’s burning question is if Canada will get pushed around in the tournament:
Canada is loaded all over its lineup, but it doesn’t have the same collection of mean customers as its top contention for the crown, Team USA. Bennett will have to handle a lot of the rough stuff if he draws into the lineup. The Americans will deploy Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, J.T. Miller, Chris Kreider, Vincent Trocheck and Charlie McAvoy. It’s not that Canada will have zero grit – Marchand is an agitator extraordinaire, Crosby’s tenacity is unmatched, and Parayko is a big boy who can keep opponents honest. But the Americans by comparison have guys who truly relish the more violent sides of the game and could dictate the style of play if they want to drag the matchup into the mud pit.
Prediction: Larkin sees Canada as the team to beat.
Finland – Steven Ellis
Finland may not jump out as the strongest team in the tournament, nor in many international ones in recent years, but they find themselves as a Jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none, Ellis wrote. Offensively they’ll need to find chemistry quickly, but that shouldn’t be an issue with a plethora of players already knowing others on the roster. It’s not spectacular, but there’s some depth there, Ellis added.
Defence will be a weak point as their roster has been ravished with injuries, but they do have Juuse Saros as their guy in the crease and we all know he has the ability to be a top-five goalie in the world. Coaching, meanwhile, could be a darkhorse spot, Ellis wrote.
“He might not be a household name yet, but Antti Pennanen is extremely accomplished as a bench boss back in Finland,” he said. “Pennanen is known for following a structured system – he always wants full buy-in from everyone. He’s not afraid to demote more skilled players in favor of someone willing to lay it all on the line.”
The burning question, however, is who fills in for Miro Heiskanen on the blue line.
If there was one irreplaceable player on this team, it was Heiskanen. The Finns couldn’t afford to lose their No. 1 blueliner – someone who could eat minutes, carry the puck and take on anyone defensively. The Stars don’t have anyone with his level of skill, and they barely have the depth to feature a fully legal blueline to begin with. So this will be an opportunity for Lindell to take center stage in a way he wasn’t going to alongside his Stars teammate. He’ll fill the defensive role, but they’ll still miss out on an offensive generator. Luckily, it’s a short tournament, so you just need to get hot for a few days, but is anyone capable of stepping up? They will need to get a full committee effort every night.
Prediction: Finland likely comes in last place.
Sweden – Uffe Bodin
Like the case is with Finland, Bodin feels there’s some underwhelming parts of Sweden’s roster, and there may not be any larger than the middle of the ice. “Should we call Sweden the ‘Donut Team’ of the 4 Nations?” Bodin asked.
While the wing positions are a strength of the team up and down the roster, the middle of the ice is lacklustre, he wrote, with Mika Zibanejad, Elias Pettersson, Joel Eriksson Ek and Elias Lindholm looking to shoulder the load. Bodin sees the defence being able to help the forward group, however, with players like Erik Karlsson, Victor Hedman and Rasmus Dahlin being able to jump in the rush.
The blue line isn’t spry and young anymore, though, but Bodin sees the group as “the least Sweden needs to worry about.” Goaltending is a bit of a concern with Jacob Markstrom missing the tournament due to injury, so Sweden will turn to Filip Gustavsson and Linus Ullmark, the former of the two starting tonight against Canada.
Bodin’s burning question is who will be the “offensive dynamo” for Sweden.
With the center position being a question mark, Sweden will need to generate offense from the wings, where their true game-breakers are.In a short tournament like this, someone needs to catch fire and be a constant threat. The most obvious candidate to shoulder that responsibility is William Nylander. He tends to turn into a superhero when wearing the yellow and blue jersey, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if he ended up as Sweden’s top scorer.Lucas Raymond might be the dark horse. He’s arguably playing the best hockey of his career with the Detroit Red Wings right now. Equally effective as a playmaker and a scorer, that versatility will be a valuable asset here.
Prediction: Bodin sees Sweden as a long-shot to win with “great goaltending and lucky bounces will be needed to beat the odds.”
USA – Anthony Trudeau
Canada’s biggest threat to winning the tournament will be the United States: a team Trudeau writes is “motivated to knock off its hockey big brother in Canada for the first time since 1996.”
Offence will be a strong suit with head coach Mike Sullivan needing to find out the best way to utilize Auston Matthews, while their deep blue line is missing strong defensive specialists. Trudeau sees the forward group as needing to help pick up some of that slack.
Goaltending will undoubtedly be a strong point for them with Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman as the American’s big three. Sullivan, Trudeau added, brings with him a wealth of experience that will play to their benefit.
The burning question: “Are these guys winners?”
Focusing on intangibles in 2025 is a good way to get shouted down by new-school hockey fans, but this American team isn’t just going to walk through its opponents.The Canadians have three of the five best players in the world, the Swedes have an all-universe blueline, and the Finns have a wealth of experience playing as a team. These will be tough games, and it will take tough people to get through them.We know Eichel, Matthew Tkachuk, and Jake Guentzel have the clutch gene, but what about players without postseason experience like Larkin and Brady Tkachuk? What about Matthews, whose playoff performances have been a sore spot throughout his career?GM Bill Guerin tried to bring some veteran glue guys in Trocheck, Kreider, and Brock Nelson, but they won’t play in the top six. It’s up to the new guard to get Team USA past its tournament yips.
Prediction: While often in the shadow of Canada, Trudeau feels the American’s “superior skill should be enough to buy them a long-overdue international triumph.”
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
