Bagel being Bagel. Insane start with 3 fights in 9 seconds. Hard skating, hard hits. Yeah, this will carry over into the last of the season between some players. Especially Panthers-Bolts.
Maybe not the smartest thing having both Tkachuk brothers sit in the box, especially when they scored 4 goals against Finland and are probably 2 of the better players for the USA. That's a good trade off for Canada when they only lose Hagel and Bennett. But if you wanted to make sure your team was emotionally invested, maybe it was a well calculated move.
There are other factors. The political baggage right now, and the lack of NHLers in a best-on-best tournament. A future 4 Nations may not have this heat.
The league would legitimately do this outdoors in Chicago.
Loser is dropped from the rotation. Create an all-world team. Then again, I'd want to see an Ovechkin-Malkin-Kucherov line out there. Imagine mixing the Russians into this. Ah well, let's enjoy the fun as Hellboy is proving goaltending wins almost every time.
Around 2000, the all-star game format was North America vs the World.
It's more fun having USA, Canada, Russia, and _________ in it. That would be some wicked hockey.
