HF Habs: PGT: 4 Nations Face-Off: Canada wins inaugural Championship, 3-2 (OT) over USA

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Nonsense but I also hate how closer and closer this shit gets to looking real. In 5 years will we be able to tell the difference?

Back to hockey. Binnington played a hell of a game. My excuses to him.

And on a negative note: many important players were injured during this Tournament. I don’t know if teams’ owners will allow their star players to participate in such a series just before the big race to finish the season and get to the Playoffs.

Depends how much money it generates the league.
 
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Back to hockey. Binnington played a hell of a game. My excuses to him.

And on a negative note: many important players were injured during this Tournament. I don’t know if teams’ owners will allow their star players to participate in such a series just before the big race to finish the season and get to the Playoffs.

Owners need to recognize that expanding hockey’s reach to new fans outweighs their focus on the season and playoff push. Attracting more people to the game translates to more revenue for them as well.
 
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Considering he went after Hagel of all players and couldn’t even beat him. It’s funny how he’s portrayed as a power forward when in reality he’s just an annoying pest. He’s not tough at all. His younger brother on the other hand…
Brady is similarly only tough against softer players, turns into Casper the Ghost when a guy like Xhekaj is out there
 
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I gotta say these last two weeks of hockey content have been incredible...like everybody got in on this. I can't believe we've been robbed of these emotions for a whole decade because of these clowns running the nhl. Perfect locations too...the snowstorms made all this even better lol. I kind of actually prefer these kinds of tournaments to be in the middle of winter.
 
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I honestly can't believe how useless Mark Stone was man, damn

While I dislike the guy for obvious reasons, it's CRAZY Scheiffle wasn't there instead

Definitely need to make a few tweaks for the Olympics , and they better
But god damn did it feel good to win this one ANYWAY with us at like 75% strength lol

Can't believe this lil tournament out of nowhere turned out so amazing lol, and I'm beyond happy Montreal and the Bell Center were prominently involved

They should do this every time right before the year of the winter Olympics
ZERO problems with that

The only question is, do you ever 'expand' a bit to like 6 teams or do you keep it as a 4 team thing and kind of rotate the Sweden Finland parts of it sometimes? (Maybe add a Team Europe again?)

Anyway, a complete success, Bravo to everyone involved
Happy McDavid got his lil Canada Moment as well
 
Brady is similarly only tough against softer players, turns into Casper the Ghost when a guy like Xhekaj is out there
When he needs to he goes, He didn't hesitate to go after Xhekaj for one second after that hit on Stutzle. I just don't think he wants spend half of his career fighting tough guys when he's much more valuable to his team then the Kassians or the Reeves' of this world. I hate him but I would take him on my team tomorrow morning.
 
I honestly can't believe how useless Mark Stone was man, damn

While I dislike the guy for obvious reasons, it's CRAZY Scheiffle wasn't there instead

Definitely need to make a few tweaks for the Olympics , and they better
But god damn did it feel good to win this one ANYWAY with us at like 75% strength lol

Can't believe this lil tournament out of nowhere turned out so amazing lol, and I'm beyond happy Montreal and the Bell Center were prominently involved

They should do this every time right before the year of the winter Olympics
ZERO problems with that

The only question is, do you ever 'expand' a bit to like 6 teams or do you keep it as a 4 team thing and kind of rotate the Sweden Finland parts of it sometimes? (Maybe add a Team Europe again?)

Anyway, a complete success, Bravo to everyone involved
Happy McDavid got his lil Canada Moment as well
Mark Stone has a place on the team, he’s a great player. It’s just his place isn’t with the fastest player in NHL history, he doesn’t have the skating for it. But as an offensive punch on a "shutdown" line, sure. In fact I think he’d be great with Crosby, they can play the slow board battle game.
 
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The only thing I worry about with future tournaments is where the hell our Goalie talent went? I am not bashing any of the goalies but there was a time when Canada had guys like Brodeur or Luongo as the backup!

Definitely a position that is missing the deep talent it used to.
 
I see you avoided the goalies. Also, Scheiffel needs to be there instead of Stone.


We'll start with Panama. We have enough winter wonderlandscape.

Schefele should not be in plans, he's done.

As a Habs fan, I hate him but I still don't understand why Scheifele wasn't there.
Because he's not good? He couldn't make it this year, and he certainly should not make it next year with Celebrini/Johnston growing up.
 
I see you avoided the goalies. Also, Scheiffel needs to be there instead of Stone.


We'll start with Panama. We have enough winter wonderlandscape.

No to Scheif, too slow. Worse player than Stone.
With Celebrini and Johnston entering contention and the Olympics being strictly no fighting, we don't need these "semi-enforcers" types.

Goalies are Binnington, Thompson

Blackwood/Hill fighting it out for #3.
 
I’d still like to know whose idea it was to trot Gretzky out there. They should be fired for being so stupid. If I was Crosby, I would’ve said something to him. Giving the thumbs up to the US bench and not even bothering to wear anything representing Canada. No effort whatsoever. They really should’ve had one of our gold medal women out there. Gretzky can believe what he wants, but he does not represent Canada and it was disrespectful to have him out there.
Gretzky's been Americanized. To be fair he was forced to walk by the American bench and was being civil giving the thumbs up, it was more of a greeting than anything else.
However, it's notable he was dressed all in blue and I agree seeing Haley Wickenheiser instead would have been special.
 
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I saw a stat that said Matthews doesn't have a goal in any game 7 he's ever played....or was that a point? Regardless. And come back to us when the US wins anything in hockey consistently.
Well, let's just see. Since 2010 at the World Junior Championship the U.> has won 6 gold; 1 silver and 4 bronze medals for a total of 11 medals. Canada has won 5 gold; 4 silver and 1 bronze medals for a total of 10 medals. At the U18 championships the U.S. has won 7 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals for a total of 13 medals. Canada has won 3 gold, 0 silver and 4 bronze for a total of 7 medals.

The growing success of U.S. hockey at the younger ages is starting to show at the NHL level as many of the teams' most skillful players are American. Look at the Canadiens. Caufield and Lane are among our best current young players. Fowler is probably our third best prospect. The Americans have caught us and but for the magical 3 M's and expectational goaltending last night, Trump and his followers would be gloating.

The demographics make U.S. dominance in hockey inevitable. All you have to know is that there are more high school hockey teams in Texas than Ontario.
 
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Thats part of why this is so strange. I am in Halifax, Nova Scotia and besides family connections, we have more in common with New Englanders than with people in other parts of Canada. We send Boston a tree every year out of thanks for their sending medical relief trains after the Halifax Explosion. Boston sport fans are a huge group here. Our ties run deep.

I was not at all surprised that Trump won. Not to get deeper into politics, but things both there and here in Canada have gone in such a way that an inevitable " enough is enough " was coming. I just hoped that Trump would not come up with too many ( there would be some ) crazy and perhaps dangerous ideas. I saw the Ukraine position ahead of time, it was obvious. Never saw the global land grab though.

Yeah, I can only imagine the awkward feeling. " Oh God, what is he going to do next ? "
I guess that’s the advantage of multi parties. A guy here steals a lot and his party gets removed, at least temporarily through voting. In the US half the people give up and don’t vote, a quarter give up and vote for meh, and a quarter give up and do all they can to make all the things they are complaining about worse.
 
Well, let's just see. Since 2010 at the World Junior Championship the U.> has won 6 gold; 1 silver and 4 bronze medals for a total of 11 medals. Canada has won 5 gold; 4 silver and 1 bronze medals for a total of 10 medals. At the U18 championships the U.S. has won 7 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals for a total of 13 medals. Canada has won 3 gold, 0 silver and 4 bronze for a total of 7 medals.

The growing success of U.S. hockey at the younger ages is starting to show at the NHL level as many of the teams' most skillful players are American. Look at the Canadiens. Caufield and Lane are among our best current young players. Fowler is probably our third best prospect. The Americans have caught us and but for the magical 3 M's and expectational goaltending last night, Trump and his followers would be gloating.

The demographics make U.S. dominance in hockey inevitable. All you have to know is that there are more high school hockey teams in Texas than Ontario.
Yup - it’s inevitable.

8.5x the population, and athletics is such a big part of the American culture including integrated into the schooling system (high school & college).

Now with more & more retired NHLers continuing to live in non traditional markets and providing skills coaching - the one are USA hockey lacked vs Canada, high end coaching, has become accessible
 
Brady is similarly only tough against softer players, turns into Casper the Ghost when a guy like Xhekaj is out there
It makes for a big challenge in team selection. If you think the series won’t be too physical you can ice a regular season team with speed and skill. Canada has mostly failed to do this recently in tournaments with European refs where intimidation leads to penalties.

On the other hand if the series plays like playoff hockey you can end up outmuscled.

I expect you have to guess. If you can wait to see other rosters you could react.
 
It makes for a big challenge in team selection. If you think the series won’t be too physical you can ice a regular season team with speed and skill. Canada has mostly failed to do this recently in tournaments with European refs where intimidation leads to penalties.

On the other hand if the series plays like playoff hockey you can end up outmuscled.

I expect you have to guess. If you can wait to see other rosters you could react.
Absolutely right man, though Canada used to see a ton of success in the WJC taking big tough players even though they’d lose a couple to suspensions every year lmao
 
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Well, let's just see. Since 2010 at the World Junior Championship the U.> has won 6 gold; 1 silver and 4 bronze medals for a total of 11 medals. Canada has won 5 gold; 4 silver and 1 bronze medals for a total of 10 medals. At the U18 championships the U.S. has won 7 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals for a total of 13 medals. Canada has won 3 gold, 0 silver and 4 bronze for a total of 7 medals.

The growing success of U.S. hockey at the younger ages is starting to show at the NHL level as many of the teams' most skillful players are American. Look at the Canadiens. Caufield and Lane are among our best current young players. Fowler is probably our third best prospect. The Americans have caught us and but for the magical 3 M's and expectational goaltending last night, Trump and his followers would be gloating.

The demographics make U.S. dominance in hockey inevitable. All you have to know is that there are more high school hockey teams in Texas than Ontario.
Now lets do the adults in the big games...not taking credit for this list, I took it in the 4 Nations section;

1. 1972 Summit Series - Canada win (1)
2. 1976 Canada Cup - Canada win (2)
3. 1981 Canada Cup - USSR win (1)
4. 1984 Canada Cup - Canada win (3)
5. 1987 Canada Cup - Canada win (4)
6. 1991 Canada Cup - Canada win (5)
7. 1996 World Cup - USA win (1)
8. 1998 Olympics - Czech win (1)
9. 2002 Olympics - Canada win (6)
10. 2004 World Cup - Canada win (7)
11. 2006 Olympics - Sweden win (1)
12. 2010 Olympics - Canada win (8)
13. 2014 Olympics - Canada win (9)
14. 2016 World Cup - Canada win (10)
15. 2025 4 Nations Cup - Canada win (11)
 
Absolutely right man, though Canada used to see a ton of success in the WJC taking big tough players even though they’d lose a couple to suspensions every year lmao
I think back then Canada had enough of a skill advantage that they could win with second tier players. Unfortunately it still influences team selection now.

In the younger tournaments they still try to field third line defensive guys who are effectively playing bottom 6 in junior, when they should be taking top scoring guys who will be shutdown guys in the nhl, but haven’t hit that point yet. “Roleplayers.”
 
It was a very high pressure game, super tense.....but it wasn't a cup final, it wasn't the olympics and it for sure wasn't the Summit Series.
The win was a soothing balm further to the onslaught of unprovoked attacks and relentless condescension Canadians at large have seen pouring down on them like never before. Some social media platforms have become an even deeper cesspool of hatred.

The Summit Series was not specifically targeted at Canada but there was a sense that the West’s system of govt was being challenged.

The circumstances that surrounded this game was uncharted territory — it felt personal. I would have hated to see the fallout had the team lost. Thankfully, it turned out well but in true Canadian fashion — it had to be a win in extremis.

The NHL will never be able to go back to an All-Star format after this.
 
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Yeah, a lot of people, including our PM, went that route in the ‘30s. It hasn’t aged well. I’m not going to take hockey over invasions or oligarchies.
And anyone who grew up in the 70’s or 80’s, would definitely understand that politics gets intertwined with international sports. Like it or not. Especially when one country disrespects another.
 

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