Team Canada Four Nations roster predictions?

[Confucius]

Canada beats Sweden in the final, Marner and William in on all goals scored.

 

[BTP]

Let's hope players do not treat this like an all-star game. Shutting down the league for two weeks to watch shinny games would be a complete waste of time and an embarrassment to the league for me.

thats not going to happen man. each game will be treated like a game 7.

 

[ACC1224]

I see the US taking this tournament. Goalies will be Canada's downfall.

 

[Suntouchable13]

USA beats Canada handily. I just really like their depth. I know the 3 best players are on Canada, but beyond that I really like the US team. They are passing us, unfortunately. It was inevitable with their population advantage.

 

[BTP]

I see the US taking this tournament. Goalies will be Canada's downfall.

Our goalies have won cups.

We have McDavid and Mackinnon

We're not losing lol

 

[Zybalto]

PP1: McDavid, MacKinnon, Reinhart, Crosby, Makar?

Tempted to put Marner on but he is probably going on PK1.

 

[notbias]

I see the US taking this tournament. Goalies will be Canada's downfall.

I think the US team is strong... but Canada's forwards are insane.

Curious what the lines will be, but you can roll something like:

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

I don't see how any team defends these forwards.

 

[Gary Nylund]

USA beats Canada handily. I just really like their depth. I know the 3 best players are on Canada, but beyond that I really like the US team. They are passing us, unfortunately. It was inevitable with their population advantage.

I wouldn't go that far, too much variance in a tournament with this format. Agree with the rest of this though, the days of Canada being the dominant nation in international hockey are probably over for good, and the US will dominate for the foreseeable future.

 

[notbias]

USA beats Canada handily. I just really like their depth. I know the 3 best players are on Canada, but beyond that I really like the US team. They are passing us, unfortunately. It was inevitable with their population advantage.

Canada had some average years, but the best players still seem to be coming out of Canada... USA is very good too and it'll be closer, but I don't think this is the case.

The US just had 0 players in the top 10 last draft and Canada had 7...

Back-to-back first overalls that are doing well in the NHL too.

 

[Suntouchable13]

Canada had some average years, but the best players still seem to be coming out of Canada... USA is very good too and it'll be closer, but I don't think this is the case.

The US just had 0 players in the top 10 last draft and Canada had 7...

Back-to-back first overalls that are doing well in the NHL too.

Yes, that is good to know. I wasn't really aware of the bolded, not really keeping track. That's pretty good then. We will see how it goes in this tournament.

 

[weems]

Elliot brought up an interesting point about there being more commercial time, 1 extra minute each break.

Talked about, how this could give star players more rest time and thus allow them to play more minutes.

Canada has arguably the three best players in the tournament in McDavid, Mackinnon and Makar, so that could be a huge thing.

 

[NVious]

USA beats Canada handily. I just really like their depth. I know the 3 best players are on Canada, but beyond that I really like the US team. They are passing us, unfortunately. It was inevitable with their population advantage.

Although I could see it happening, I also think that the top end talent on team Canada is too much and it's difficult for the depth to "realize" it's advantage in a short tournament like this when McDavid, Makar, Mack will be on the ice probably 100% of the time.

The Canadian team is also jam packed with winners whereas that is what one could say is an even greater than Canada's goaltending weakness, weakness for the states.

Only 4 guys on team usa have won the cup, whereas on Canada 16 guys have won the cup. While some are rightfully critical of our "weak" goalies, they've at least got it done, whereas a decent chunk of America's team has very little experience at the highest pressure situations.

 

[Gary Nylund]

Canada had some average years, but the best players still seem to be coming out of Canada... USA is very good too and it'll be closer, but I don't think this is the case.

The US just had 0 players in the top 10 last draft and Canada had 7...

Back-to-back first overalls that are doing well in the NHL too.

You could argue who has the best roster ATM, I think most would agree that whoever's better it's at least close. Going forward though, you don't think US should pull ahead eventually because of the bigger population? I see the US being clearly ahead of Canada if not 10 years from now, then 20 years from now for sure but if you don't think so, I'd be interested to hear your reasoning.

Elliot brought up an interesting point about there being more commercial time, 1 extra minute each break.

Talked about, how this could give star players more rest time and thus allow them to play more minutes.

Canada has arguably the three best players in the tournament in McDavid, Mackinnon and Makar, so that could be a huge thing.

Hmm, that is an interesting point.

 

[Smif]

That is some dandy trolling they did there formatting it like it's reading line combinations and putting Mitch as the 13th forward.

Especially with the 7th Dman being in the proper spot and the 3rd string goalie in the right spot as well. What a mess.

 

[Leafs98]

Cant remember did Maltby and Draper work as specialty players

 

[Gallagbi]

Team canada looks weaker than usual for the first time in forever

Jarvis, Cirelli, Bennett, Koencny really should not be Team Canada level players

Goaltending is the worst probably in Team Canada history

Is there a nation that feels stronger than usual? For whatever reason, I kept thinking each of the rosters was "light" on talent

 

[Gary Nylund]

Is there a nation that feels stronger than usual? For whatever reason, I kept thinking each of the rosters was "light" on talent

USA?

 

[Maple Leaf]

USA?

who do they have who is actually good

 

[Gary Nylund]

who do they have who is actually good

Define "actually good".

 

[Gallagbi]

USA?

I pause on them, but knowing we have a better top end upfront kills some of it for me.

 

[Maple Leaf]

Define "actually good".

I am kidding their roster looks tight

 

[Confucius]

who do they have who is actually good

Well they have Mathews but then again he can’t score without Marner so yeah I’m not concerned about the U S team

 

[leafs in five]

love the Caufield snub

 

[Mess]

The 4 Nations Face-Off will be held from Feb. 12-20 at Bell Centre in Montreal and TD Garden in Boston.

With that in mind, a team of three NHL.com writers and editors will take a crack at each country's lineup.

Here, NHL.com Editor-in-Chief Bill Price, staff writer Derek Van Diest and LNH.com staff writer Nicolas Ducharme give their opinion on how Canada should line up when it opens the tournament against Sweden on Feb. 12 at Bell Centre in Montreal.

Forwards (13)

Sam Reinhart -- Connor McDavid -- Nathan MacKinnon
Brad Marchand -- Sidney Crosby -- Mark Stone
Brandon Hagel -- Brayden Point -- Mitch Marner
Sam Bennett -- Anthony Cirelli -- Travis Konecny
Seth Jarvis

With a plethora of offensive talent available to Team Canada coach Jon Cooper, there is an unlimited number of line combinations he could deploy. Perhaps the biggest question is whether Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon will center his own line or play alongside Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid. MacKinnon, McDavid and Florida Panthers forward Sam Reinhart, who has been one of the most prolific goal-scorers in the NHL the past two seasons, would make an extremely formidable trio.

NHL.com projects Canada's lines, defense pairs, goalies for 4 Nations | NHL.com

Reinhart-McDavid-MacKinnon form top line, Hill No. 1 goalie according to NHL.com

www.nhl.com

 

[Hellcat]

I see the US taking this tournament. Goalies will be Canada's downfall.

Canada usually has a lot more grit in the line up. I think this team went softer than "national" teams have in the past, Hyman and Wilson would have been on my team if I was picking the line up but I'm not and they aren't. I think Canada has more top top end talent than any other team but I think the US has better over all talent.

Will be cool to see Marner play with his future 1B center.

I agree I think the US goaltending is just too good to beat. US 1st place, Sweden 2nd , Canada 3rd.