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World Cup: Four Nations Tournament-Team Canada

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Sky04 said:
That's the thing though if they don't click you can bury a Marchand-Cirelli-Konency line and they'll still be an effective puck hound line other than a useless offensive one.

What do you do with Laf, Bedard and whoever else? Watch them get eaten by USA's top 6?
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Perhaps they aren't ready yet. Maybe in a year they will be. I don't think either one of them fill a lot of use unless they are purposely on an offensive line.
 
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LeafLoyalist said:
In the past Canada would stack the team with all the talent available, the other teams weren't as deep, so Canada would roll over them by scoring at will. But the gap between Canada and all other countries is not that big, so focus should be on being able to defend better than in the past. It's almost as if International Hockey has become much more like the NHL game....so the construction of Team Canada is more balance along with the best talent in the world!!
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I find that it ebbs and flows historically. Sometimes Canada just picks the best players, but there are teams like Canada from 1984, 1987, and 1991 where they clearly left significant talent home in the name of having certain players for certain roles. But yeah most of the time Canada could just pick whoever and the team would usually win because the roster was by far the best. At this moment Canada can't pick by far the best roster.
 
Crosby2010 said:
That could be it. I know we need those types of guys, that energy type of line, and the know the big boys will be the ones carrying the load. Just in these sorts of tournaments if the offense doesn't click you don't have a lot of time to have it come around. Hard to imagine the offense not clicking with these guys but who knows. I think it will all work out. They did build this team with a plan in mind. They weren't whistling dixie.
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I think you will see important goals by the grinders ,and less important goals from the stars , this short tournament is preb for olympics , you need to build chemistry fast
 
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Voight said:
Weakest group of goalies since... 1984 I think?

Probably the weakest ever for a Canadian team in a best on best tournament.
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As for goalies, yes it is the weakest, I think too. 1984 was actually not too bad. Fuhr, Peeters and Lemelin. That's a good trio. Peeters had just won the Vezina in 1983. Lemelin finished 2nd in the Vezina voting in 1984. And Fuhr had just won the Cup. And even then we still had good goalies not picked. Liut, Moog, Smith, etc. It was that era before Roy showed up and long after Dryden was gone, and yet these were still good goalies. Better than 2025.

But overall the team is good. That's some serious forward corps for us right there. Unreal. There have definitely been worse forward groups than this one.

Great99 said:
I think you will see important goals by the grinders ,and less important goals from the stars , this short tournament is preb for olympics , you need to build chemistry fast
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That could be correct. I know how they wanted to build this team, they wanted to build it just like you were saying. Grinding players wearing the other team down, chipping in, throwing their weight around and then the stars have more room out there to blow the game open. In reality Keenan built the 1987 team just like this one, and the 1991 team for that matter too (although for various reasons we left perhaps the most talent ever through injuries, not wanting to play or cuts)
 
IMO, this line-up would have added a little more versatility and offensive juice while still keeping the identity of the players they wanted:

Bennett-McDavid-Reinhart
Konecny-Crosby-MacKinnon
Hagel-Point-Marner
Cirelli-Thomas-Stone
Bedard-Jarvis

I think naming Marchand was a mistake
 
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RoyIsALegend said:
Team Canada have notoriously always been high on LH-RH pairings so I expect Parayko to play ahead of Sanheim.

Toews - Makar
Morrissey - Parayko
Theodore - Pietrangelo
Sanheim
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Parayko seems like a specific choice to take defensive minutes as well, so it’d be weird if he was the 7th D, unless the plan is to specifically use him against USA’s size or something. If anything I could see Sanheim replace Toews if he doesn’t have a good start. He hasn’t been as good this year.
 
ArthurNHL said:
So Hyman's return, not a surprise really. Maybe he is the biggest snub of this tournament?
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Are you calling 2 goals against the 11th in the East Blue Jackets a "comeback?"

That was his first time scoring in 7 games.

He has 10 points in 21 games on the season.

He's not even close to being a snub, let alone "the biggest snub of the tournament."
 
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Regal said:
Parayko seems like a specific choice to take defensive minutes as well, so it’d be weird if he was the 7th D, unless the plan is to specifically use him against USA’s size or something. If anything I could see Sanheim replace Toews if he doesn’t have a good start. He hasn’t been as good this year.
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I read (I think on HF) that Toews has been playing hurt for a while, could explain some of that performance.
 
www.nhl.com

Nill talks Canada roster for 4 Nations Face-Off in Q&A | NHL.com

Assistant GM discusses difficult decisions, importance of chemistry
www.nhl.com www.nhl.com

Article provides some insight into some of the picks. I have to say, if they were considering Weegar, I don’t understand why they took Parayko over him other than size being the factor. I don’t want to hear anything of Parayko attending the WC. Weegar tore it up at the 2023 WC with a gold medal.

-Looks like they were seriously considering Scheifele, Hyman and Duchene. These may be the next forwards they call on if an injury occurs, if they keep up this play 2 months from now.

-Barring an absolutely incredible run and an injury or 2, Bedard is near-pencilled in for the 2026 Olympics, but is far down the list for this tournament.
 
SmoggyTwinkles said:
It would be great if all the cool posters who have no interest in this and won't watch a single second would kindly you know what.

It's just hockey. It's not the Olympics. It's a gimmick. etc etc.

Ok, get over yourself and stop being so interested in it then?
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They said the same thing in the 2016 World Cup. Meanwhile there was some great hockey that was played, and there were elite players in there that were RFA at the time and still played. I'd guess that many who are "too good" to watch these games don't understand having a real passion for hockey, and/or have never played hockey themselves.
 
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Would love to see:

Stone - Mcdavid - Reinhart
Konecny - Crosby - Mackinnon
Hagel - Point - Marner
Marchand - Cirelli - Jarvis
Bennett

Toews - Makar
Theodore - Pietrangelo
Morissey - Parayko
Sanheim
 
Puckstopper said:
They said the same thing in the 2016 World Cup. Meanwhile there was some great hockey that was played, and there were elite players in there that were RFA at the time and still played. I'd guess that many who are "too good" to watch these games don't understand having a real passion for hockey, and/or have never played hockey themselves.
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Exactly and to top it off they can't stop talking about it. They're just so not interested /s
 
JackSlater said:
I find that it ebbs and flows historically. Sometimes Canada just picks the best players, but there are teams like Canada from 1984, 1987, and 1991 where they clearly left significant talent home in the name of having certain players for certain roles. But yeah most of the time Canada could just pick whoever and the team would usually win because the roster was by far the best. At this moment Canada can't pick by far the best roster.
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It's mainly the goalie situation.

Probably weakest I've ever seen (on paper)

Perhaps Defense isn't that amazing either.

USA looks pretty stacked to me. I consider them to be the favorites.
 
Thoughts on what PP1 might look like?

I'm thinking something along the lines of...

Marner/Reinhart-Crosby-McDavid
MacKinnon-Makar
 
SmoggyTwinkles said:
It's mainly the goalie situation.

Probably weakest I've ever seen (on paper)

Perhaps Defense isn't that amazing either.

USA looks pretty stacked to me. I consider them to be the favorites.
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I don't think there is any question that it's the weakest goaltending has been for Canada. You can go pretty much any year before 2020 and Canada has at least one, usually more than one, hall of fame level goaltender in their prime. The defence is ok.

The American roster is good. Not a lot of players I'd be nervous of in meaningfull games on the individual level, but waves of talent can be tough to deal with. Any of these teams are a threat in this event. I'd like Canada's odds better in a longer event.
 
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The USA team looks excellent on paper but I want to see how anyone will stop McDavid, MacKinnon, and Makar on the ice especially if they're coming at you together.

It's a monumental challenge even for the best in the business.
 
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Eternal Leaf said:
The USA team looks excellent on paper but I want to see how anyone will stop McDavid, MacKinnon, and Makar on the ice especially if they're coming at you together.

It's a monumental challenge even for the best in the business.
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I wasn’t alive for it but based on the documentary I watched it seems like a similar dynamic to the 1987 Canada Cup; thé soviets had probably their best team ever, but Canada had the two best players in the world and Bourque at the peak of their powers and road them hard to victory despite a less than convincing roster
 
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