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The Four Nations Tournament Thread

I'm taking a break from hockey for the next couple of weeks. I put this Four Nations tournament in the same category of the three-on-three tournament at the all-star game. About as riveting as a beer-league game at Eight Rinks. Who cares?

Elias Pettersson is now the only Canuck in this lackluster tournament, along with Lankinen who doesn't figure to play much for Finns. Good. Fewer Vancouver players to risk injury.

The 'lucky' NHL players are the ones heading home or out on vacation for a couple of weeks.
 
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Pretty much a perfect result for us in terms of who's going and not.

Quinn gets to rest up. Lankinen probably won't play that much, if at all.

We get to see what Tocchet hockey looks like with an elite roster (albeit with not too much time to get the guys playing it)

Pettersson is evaluated and gauged with some time away from the Canucks, playing for his nation. See if he can gain some sort of elite form again.
 
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Jroach said:
Pretty much a perfect result for us in terms of who's going and not.

Quinn gets to rest up. Lankinen probably won't play that much, if at all.

We get to see what Tocchet hockey looks like with an elite roster (albeit with not too much time to get the guys playing it)

Pettersson is evaluated and gauged with some time away from the Canucks, playing for his nation. See if he can gain some sort of elite form again.
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Sucks for us fans, though watching.
Seeing Quinn Hughes put on a clinic for USA would be pretty special honestly.

Elias should get some serious confidence playing in this tournament, just go out there and have some fun again, and come back rejuvenated
 
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Canucks LB said:
Sucks for us fans, though watching.
Seeing Quinn Hughes put on a clinic for USA would be pretty special honestly.

Elias should get some serious confidence playing in this tournament, just go out there and have some fun again, and come back rejuvenated
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Hopefully he's healthy for a meaningful tournament next February.

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ChilliBilly said:
Note bolded. You missed 2 major reasons.

1. For a ton of years the Olympics were for amateurs only. Pros were not allowed to play.

2. Once pros were allowed in, it also required agreement from both the NHL to release players and for the NHLPA to agree for them to go.

This tourney is mostly a gimmick. Russia is missing for good reason. But I suspect Czechia and Switzerland might be annoyed, since both were ranked higher than the US and Sweden in the most recent IIHA rankings of countries (men) in May 2024.

And this is a one of. It's not likely to happen again. And a lot of top players will be missing. Lots of countries not represented.
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The Canada-Russia summit series was one-of-one and didn't happen again. There were only two teams involved! There's a lot of nostalgia ascribed to it now.

My main point remains true. All these tournaments and whatnot are "made up". People place whatever meaning onto it they want to.

Look at soccer. People here are saying, "only the Olympics matter". But for soccer, they don't! No one cares about soccer in the Olympics. All that matters is the World Cup! Euros and Copa are bigger. No one in North America cared about the WBC until the last event, which was pretty good! Every event is a "gimmick" to some degree. People take away from it what they want to.
 
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I think its going to be better than people are anticipating. The players have been begging to play for their countries more and this is one of their big opportunities to do it. Definitely, that Canada-USA game and crowd will be emotionally charged.

Was it perfect? No. I'd always prefer a tournament that isn't just a pure NHL moneygrab, but something that has real rules, qualification, IIHF involvement so we can get the Czechs, Slovaks, Swiss, Germans involved in some way.
 
VanillaCoke said:
Expecting first month of regular season games intensity with minimal hitting and no fights.
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Honestly, I’m expecting the exact opposite, I think it’s gonna be some of the best hockey we’re gonna see in years.

These players are extremely competitive, it’s going to be f***ing great to watch
 
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Canucks LB said:
Honestly, I’m expecting the exact opposite, I think it’s gonna be some of the best hockey we’re gonna see in years.

These players are extremely competitive, it’s going to be f***ing great to watch
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And what will it do for runs for a playoff berth?

I remember when Perreault broke his leg in a allstar game and Buffalo missed the playoffs because of it.
 
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