4 Nations Face-Off Preview and Predictions

The 4 Nations Face-Off kicks off tonight in Montreal with Canada taking on Sweden in the first best-on-best tournament since the World Cup of Hockey in 2016.

Canadian hockey fans have been starved of seeing the likes of Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, and Nathan MacKinnon playing together with the maple leaf on their chests. This tournament will see the first instance of these three elite players playing together for Canada against the best from the United States of America (USA), Sweden, and Finland.

The Bell Centre in Montreal and TD Garden in Boston will split the hosting duties for the seven-game tournament.

While we will see some of the top talents in the hockey world, it does come as a shame that we only have the four nations (Canada, USA, Sweden, and Finland). Players like Leon Draisaitl, Alexander Ovechkin, Roman Josi, and David Pastrnak who have no representation in this tournament.

Hockey fans will be heavily anticipating the National Hockey League (NHL) players going to the 2026 Olympics; the first time since Sochi 2014.

The Canadian squad is highlighted by immense offensive talent with Crosby, MacKinnon, and McDavid being the stars. Canada could have struggles in goal with the trio of Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill, and Sam Montembeault coming in as the weakest goalie group. The defence is spearheaded by Colorado Avalanche star Cale Makar.

Canada has some glaring omissions from their roster with Washington Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson and Winnipeg Jets forward Mark Scheifele. Thompson and Scheifele are key players on the two best teams in the NHL.

Thompson could arguably be the second-best goalie in the NHL this season behind American Connor Hellebuyck. The former Brock Badger ranks in the top five of save percentage, goals against average and wins among qualified goalies.

Scheifele is top 15 in points this year and has been on an absolute tear since the announcement of the 4 Nations rosters. The Jets star has 19 points since January 1st with nine goals and ten assists.

Team Sweden is captained by defenceman Victor Hedman as the Swedes boast a strong defensive team. Goalies Filip Gustavsson and Linus Ullmark will likely split games as both have had solid seasons with their respective NHL teams.

The Swedes have the top goal scorer at the tournament with William Nylander sitting at 33 goals on the season only behind German forward Draisaitl who won’t be at the 4 Nations. Nylander will look to drive the Swedish offence that has a lot of depth and youth.

Sweden will be without goalie Jacob Markstrom and forward William Karlsson who both suffered injuries before the commencement of the tournament.

The Finns have the weakest roster on paper, but teams should not dismiss the Suomi. Finland has had a lot of recent international success and rosters some top players from the reigning Stanley Cup Champions.

Captained by Aleksander Barkov, the Finns have a strong forward core with Barkov, Sebastian Aho, Mikko Rantanen, and Patrik Laine. Dealt with some major blows on defence the Suomi lost Miro Heiskanen, Rasmus Ristolainen and Jani Hakanpaa that has severely deteriorated the talent on the backend.

Nashville Predators goalie Juuse Saros will handle the bulk of the workload and could be asked to steal a game or two to get the Finns to the championship.

Lastly, we have the favourites of the tournament, the Americans. The USA has the best overall team with no clear positional weaknesses.

The Americans have a mix of grit and skill on offence that will pester and test the defence of opposing teams. Brady and Matthew Tkachuk lead the way in the grit department with captain Auston Matthews, Kyle Connor, and Jack Hughes highlighting a few of their extremely skilled options up front.

The Americans are no slouches on the back end either. Despite losing Quinn Hughes to an injury, the USA has a defence core that has top defenders Zach Werenski, Charlie McAvoy, and Adam Fox.

If this lineup wasn’t scary enough, try getting the puck past the brick wall that has been Connor Hellebuyck this season. The Jets goalie will likely start all three American games, but if there are any hiccups they have arguably the second-best goalie in Jake Oettinger waiting on the bench to fill-in.

Predictions:

Sweden beats Canada

USA beats Finland

Sweden beats Finland

USA beats Canada

Canada beats Finland

USA beats Sweden

FINAL: USA beats Sweden

This American team is too strong on paper to have any challenges rolling through this best-on-best tournament. The Canadians downfall will likely come in net as they lack an elite goaltending option to stop the best attackers in the game. The Finns lack of top defenders and weaker forward depth will likely see them losing all three matchups, despite putting up a fight. The Swedes seem to have the second best overall team with a relatively balanced group that gains the edge over Canada due to goaltending.