Post-Game Talk: Four Nations | Canada def. USA - 3-2 (Our Game. Our Country.)

[ChilliBilly]

Honestly, they could’ve made this a six team tournament. Make two groups not in the present groups mentioned and split them up by countries. I would leave the Russians out because Putin is a shithead. To explain take the countries not represented and split the players from those countries into two groups and make teams out of those.

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

Samuelson right? I remember him saying Sweden could F-off

Yep. The top scoring Swede in the NHL that year, left off in favor of this guy.

 

[VanJack]

I know it's probably a welcome break in a long, and times tortuous NHL season......but it's hard to get too pumped up about this Four Nations Tournament.

I mean, if they wanted to get the top players from every nation together for a tournament, why not just let them play in the Olympics every four years?

The whole thing looks gimmicky to me.....with Gary Bettman trying to wring some more money out of fans in Boston and Montreal, which will be home to all the games.

And as I understand it, the 'Four Nations Cup' is a 'one-off'. There's no guarantee the tournament will ever happen again, or that the Cup will be awarded more than once.

Finally, the talking heads on TSN and Sportsnet have been obsessed with Canada's Four Nations roster for months, to the point of tedium. I mean who really cares who gets on or left off, or that Canada will have trouble finding a goaltender?

Just get it over with, and then back to NHL regular season.....and the sooner the better.

 

[Chairman Maouth]

 

[Nuck Bonino]

no skinner on the omissions roster is incredibly funny

I bet Tanev wouldnt be on that list if he never became a Leaf (even though he should have had this recognition a long time ago)

 

[Nuck Bonino]

burst out laughing at 0:51

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Crosby is the most obvious captain of all the teams.

I think Forsberg or Hedman for Sweden.
Barkov for Finland.
Should be Hughes for USA - I think the suggestion of Matthew Tkachuk is insane. If it's not Hughes, I could see them going with one of their vets, like Nelson, Kreider or Trochek.

 

[RobertKron]

Crosby is the most obvious captain of all the teams.

I think Forsberg or Hedman for Sweden.
Barkov for Finland.
Should be Hughes for USA - I think the suggestion of Matthew Tkachuk is insane. If it's not Hughes, I could see them going with one of their vets, like Nelson, Kreider or Trochek.

Imagine they all just gave Crosby the C.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Imagine they all just gave Crosby the C.

Reflecting on my post, I think Barkov is also the obvious choice for Finland.

 

[I Hart Conor Garland]

Crosby is the most obvious captain of all the teams.

I think Forsberg or Hedman for Sweden.
Barkov for Finland.
Should be Hughes for USA - I think the suggestion of Matthew Tkachuk is insane. If it's not Hughes, I could see them going with one of their vets, like Nelson, Kreider or Trochek.

f*** me. I just became emotionally invested in the stupidest thing. I'm gonna be upset if Quintin isn't given the C.

 

[RobertKron]

Reflecting on my post, I think Barkov is also the obvious choice for Finland.

Sorry, Crosby already has it.

 

[MS]

Looking at the rosters it seems like we've hit the point where the US has passed Canada in terms of depth/strength of rosters. Comparatively the defense and goaltending of the US is so far ahead of Canada it isn't really even funny, and the overall depth of the forwards is stronger for the US also (Jason Robertson scored 109 points two years ago and is 25 years old and can't make their team).

Canada still has the two most dominant forwards in the world in McDavid and MacKinnon and might be able to succeed just on the backs of those guys but overall ... man. It doesn't bode well long-term.

 

[Hodgy]

Looking at the rosters it seems like we've hit the point where the US has passed Canada in terms of depth/strength of rosters. Comparatively the defense and goaltending of the US is so far ahead of Canada it isn't really even funny, and the overall depth of the forwards is stronger for the US also (Jason Robertson scored 109 points two years ago and is 25 years old and can't make their team).

Canada still has the two most dominant forwards in the world in McDavid and MacKinnon and might be able to succeed just on the backs of those guys but overall ... man. It doesn't bode well long-term.

The USNTDP has been very successful.

 

[sting101]

Helps when your talent pool is not just the State of California. And i get that Canada is hockey mad but it's also become very expensive and less can afford it.

The most shocking evolution has been the lack of good Canadian goalies

 

[sting101]

Nit picking the roster a bit i was surprised Bennett and Cirelli beat out Suzuki Thomas Scheifele even though i have zero issue with it and think both were astute picks

Marchand doesn't deserve it based on what he's done the last year but as a 4th line LW i guess it's ok. Hope they dont try and put him in a prominent role

Wonder if Debrusk got any consideration....probably not much

Pretty hard to criticize the defence. i like the Sanheim and Parayko picks to round it out. Toews and Makar have chemistry as do Theodore-Pietrangelo (more familiarity) if they decide to use Theodore on the left side and his ability to play both effectively is big. Weegar must have been a hard omission.

Crosby MacKinnon Marner
McDavid Point Reinhart
Marchand Bennett Konecny
Hagel Cirelli Stone
Jarvis

Toews Makar
Theodore Pietrangelo
Morrissey Parayko
Sanheim

PP1 - McDavid MacKinnon Makar Reinhart Crosby is pretty dreamy

 

[VanillaCoke]

Canada Roster looks stacked aside from known relative weakness in goal.
No issues with the roster really, looks strong all the way through and the replacement options are top tier.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

i remember nothing about the 2004 world cup other than one ridiculous tuomo ruutu goal and i actually watched the whole tournament because we were going into an indefinite lockout

over/under on whether any of us will remember anything from this tournament?

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

My money is on the USA roster..I think they’ll win handily.

 

[racerjoe]

Helps when your talent pool is not just the State of California. And i get that Canada is hockey mad but it's also become very expensive and less can afford it.

The most shocking evolution has been the lack of good Canadian goalies

Yeah and to go off this point, hockey in Canada has seen a decrease in participation of 12% vs the US has seen a 1.9% increase which may not seem like much, but it now means more Americans play hockey than Canadians.

 

[sting101]

My money is on the USA roster..I think they’ll win handily.

US sucks......ok kidding but i disagree unless they get vastly better goaltending we have better forwards.

US roster construction is off to me. Almost no right handed shots and too many PP merchants. I think were faster and more rounded and win handily as long as the net doesn't implode

 

[Pastor Of Muppetz]

US sucks......ok kidding but i disagree unless they get vastly better goaltending we have better forwards.

US roster construction is off to me. Almost no right handed shots and too many PP merchants. I think were faster and more rounded and win handily as long as the net doesn't implode

I think the US team has a big advantage with the Hughes and Tkachuk brothers..They’re all tight knit and competitive..Not to mention Matthews, Fox, and the stellar goaltending of Hellebuyck.

 

[MS]

I think the US team has a big advantage with the Hughes and Tkachuk brothers..They’re all tight knit and competitive..Not to mention Matthews, Fox, and the stellar goaltending of Hellebuyck.

The US defense/goaltending is better than everyone else in the tournament by a country mile.

All 3 goalies (and Demko if healthy) would be automatic starters for Canada and their blueline is so skilled and mobile but without giving up anything defensively.

 

[Canuckle1970]

I'd prefer that our top guys get a rest for the playoffs, but this tournament seems to have the support of the players, so I'll certainly be watching.

Just noticed yesterday that Vegas has 7 players picked. Goody.

 

[HairyKneel]

US sucks......ok kidding but i disagree unless they get vastly better goaltending we have better forwards.

US roster construction is off to me. Almost no right handed shots and too many PP merchants. I think were faster and more rounded and win handily as long as the net doesn't implode

Yeah at best the US has an equal D IMHO. And I'll take our forward group all day. The US has way better goaltending though. I still Canada wins but anything can happen in a short tournament.

 

[vancityluongo]

The US defense/goaltending is better than everyone else in the tournament by a country mile.

All 3 goalies (and Demko if healthy) would be automatic starters for Canada and their blueline is so skilled and mobile but without giving up anything defensively.

the us forwards might be better too, imo

like you said, robertson didn't make their roster... while he probably should have, there just isn't anyone of that quality left off the canadian team.

canadian depth might be better 10 rosters down to the AHLers or whatever, but the top end US talent has clearly surpassed ours. after makar (and he's genuinely arguable as tied with hughes), 6 of the next 8 best defenseman between the two countries are american. the top 4 goalies are american. given that he's currently a leaf, stolarz as their fifth best goalie might've cracked team canada.

of the 13 forward spots, i think only four would for sure go to canadians - crosby, mcdavid, mackinnon, stone. matthews, m.tkachuk, eichel, hughes are their locks. very strong argument for reinhart, marner, point, but equally so for guentzel, brady, JTM and connor.

i think they messed up taking guys like trochek and nelson over robertson and thompson, so hopefully our depth guys like cirelli and bennett can make up any advantage they have in the middle-6.