Three Knee-Jerk Thoughts About USA-Canada 4 Nations Title Bout

BOSTON — After the electric start to USA’s round-robin win over Canada at the Bell Centre in Montreal on Saturday night, the hockey world should expect an even more epic game between the two powerhouses battle in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game Thursday night at TD Garden.

Here are four knee-jerk thoughts about the USA-Canada 4 Nations title bout:

USA Appears To Be Banged-Up
Team USA is the favorite to win the trophy and the medals, per FanDuel Sportsbook, but with the status of several players unknown, that could change over the next couple of days.

Charlie McAvoy, Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk all missed USA’s only loss in the round-robin on Monday night to Sweden with various aliments. Brady Tkachuk played on 1:55 across five shifts in the first period and left the game after crashing into the goalpost.

USA coach Mike Sullivan didn’t provide much of an update after the loss, stating only that McAvoy and Matthews were both dealing with upper-body injuries.

If any of the four stars for USA can’t go on Thursday, it could drastically change the American’s game plan against Canada.

Canada’s Stars Showed Why They’re Elite
Three of the best players in hockey showed up for Canada in the team’s 5-3 victory over Finland to advance to the championship game.

Connor McDavid opened the scoring for Canada for the second straight game, while Nathan MacKinnon added two tallies, followed by Sidney Crosby’s empty net goal to seal the victory.

“You have the best players in the world doing things they’re probably not accustomed to. All for the benefit of our team winning hockey games,” Canada coach Jon Cooper said. “It was a 200-foot game. You’ve got McDavid, MacKinnon and Crosby, all these guys dumping pucks and going in after them. It was a way we had to play to win this game, and we did it.”

If Canada plays the same type of game they played against Finland on Thursday night, USA will certainly have to be at the top of its game to stop them.

Goaltending Is Key
Connor Hellebuyck has been near perfect in the two games he won for USA. The Winnipeg Jets goaltender leads all goalies in the tournament with a 1.00 goals-against average and a .957 save percentage.

Across the ice, Jordan Binnington has been shaky at times for Canada. In the loss to the United States, Binnington gave up two goals he should have had against Jake Guentzel and Dylan Larkin. The St. Louis Blues netminder is posting a 2.60 goals-against average and .892 save percentage in three games.

With both USA and Canada having generational talents on their roster, the championship game really will come down to defense and goaltending.

The question is, which goalie is up to stealing a game for their country?

Puck drop for the USA-Canada 4 Nations final is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET from TD Garden on Thursday. The game will air on ESPN.