Last night the 4 Nations Face-off concluded with an incredible game, capped off with heartbreak for the USA as none other than Connor McDavid ended it for Canada, winning 3-2 in overtime. After getting past how sad I was that we lost though, I just reflected on really how perfect this short tournament was and how great this whole thing was for the NHL and for the sport of hockey in general.

Hockey was starved for best on best hockey. With NHL players kept out of the Olympics for the last eleven year, this was the first time we truly had best on best international hockey with the best players in the world playing for their country.

Going into this tournament, replacing the All Star break a lot of people were skeptical about how players would treat this tournament. Everyone knows that the All Star Weekend was a complete joke (and the NBA didn’t do themselves any favors having that during this tourney), with guys caring about it so little that they were showing up to the skills competition hammered last year. Kucherov lazily shooting pucks at nothing, Pastrnak and Kempe rolling into there right off the golf course with about eight shots of Pink Whitney filming a sandbagger with the Chiclets guys. Complete joke of a weekend. I’m obsessed with hockey, watching random west coast games at 1am on a regular basis, and watching every single game my shitty Buffalo Sabres play…and I still didn’t give a fuck about the All Star break. The All Star game was just not worth getting hurt or caring about for these players. 

But this tournament completely bucked that trend with guys giving 110% and arguably playing the hardest they ever had in their hockey careers. Guys on several teams who had won Stanley Cups even said that this was the toughest hockey they’ve ever played. All for a first time exhibition tournament in the middle of the season to replace the All Star break.

Every single game in this pretty short tournament was solid. In the first game of the tournament, Canada blew a 3-1 third period lead against Sweden, winning in overtime on a Mitch Marner goal from none other than Captain Canada, Sidney Crosby, who had three points in that game. The following night Team USA won their opener in a game that was close going into the third period, but with a four goal third period with led by Brady and Matthew Tkachuk each scoring twice, we beat Finland in a 6-1 blowout. Saturday saw the two rivalry games of round robin play. In the matinee Sweden and Finland went to overtime, with Finland getting a 4-3 win. That night in Montreal, we had an absolutely electric show for USA vs. Canada, with three fights in the first nine seconds with Matthew Tkachuk fighting Brandon Hagel off the opening faceoff, his brother Brady fighting Matthew’s Florida teammate Sam Bennett, and then a couple seconds later J.T. Miller fighting Colton Parayko. Following the fireworks to start, the game ended up being a very close battle. After Connor McDavid opened the scoring for Canada 5:31 into the game, Connor Hellebuyck and the USA defense shut them down the rest of the game. Team USA lead 2-1 with everyone on the end of their seats until Jake Guentzel capped off the game with an empty netter with 1:19 left on the way to a 3-1 Team USA win. That game was the first time in 27 games over the course of 15 years that Team Canada lost a game with Sidney Crosby in the lineup. On Monday afternoon, Canada had a sweat late against Finland, dominating early with a 4-0 lead going into the third period, but with back to back goals 23 seconds apart with less than two minutes late, Sid the Kid hit an empty netter to cover my puck line on their way to a 5-3 win, locking up their spot in the Championship game with a regulation win. After having locked up their spot in the championship game and resting both Matthew Tkachuk and Auston Matthews, Team USA lost 2-1 in a close one against Sweden on Monday.

After the first game between these teams, last night’s championship game was even more anticipated and absolutely lived up to the hype with these guys playing a hard-nosed, fast, and physical style of hockey that was reminiscent of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The whole game was close throughout. Nathan MacKinnon opened the scoring for Canada 4:48 into the game, on a great shot from the top of the slot on a screened shot coming around the top of the circle. Brady Tkachuk tied it up the game at 1-1 with 3:08 left in the first, right in front, tipping in a missed wrap around by Auston Matthews past Binnington. Team USA took the lead on a Jake Sanderson shot in front, capitalizing on a rebound up front, 7:32 into the second period. Awesome to see Sanderson score as he was inserted into the lineup due to Charlie McAvoy’s injury. With 6 minutes left in the second Sam Bennett tied it up for Canada, capitalizing a turnover and scoring on a three on two from a nice Marner. After a well played, scoreless third period for both teams, including an incredible play by Jaccob Slavin right in front to prevent a Canada goal, onto overtime, with playoff rules to determine the winner. Jordan Binnington, who a lot of people, myself included, doubted coming into this tournament, came up huge with some fantastic saves to keep the game going and then who else but the best player in the world, Connor McDavid ending the tournament, winning gold for Canada, getting left open right in the slot by Auston Matthews, and beating Hellebuyck on a golden goal that you knew was going in immediately when he got the puck.

Immediately after Connor scored, I go “that’s the golden goal again, Crosby passing the torch to McDavid”. The best player in the world scoring the game winner in OT. Storybook shit. As much as I hate that Team USA lost, gotta respect that.

This game reached a bunch of milestones for the NHL. It was the most watched hockey game in years, by a huge margin, with 10.4 million viewers in the US, the most ever for a hockey game that wasn’t in the Olympics and 10.7 million people in Canada, over 1/4 of the Canadian population.  It was the largest audience for a non-NFL event ever on ESPN+ and the most bet on hockey game in legalized sports gambling history. Impressive.

The NHL used some slightly different rules for this tournament that I hope they adopt in the normal league in the future. They changed the point structure, giving three points for a regulation win and two for an overtime win. I liked that, giving teams more of a reason to try to win it late rather than playing conservatively to go into OT. Then overtime, which we saw in the Canada/Sweden game to open the tourney, going ten minutes of three on three, rather than the typical five minutes before a shootout. In the normal NHL rules, that game would’ve gone to a shootout, but instead we saw the Marner goal from Crosby 6:06 into overtime. I feel like with how wide open the ice is in 3 on 3 play, even though guys just take it all the way back into their own zone to try to get a mismatch in transition, way more games would end in OT rather than going to a joke of a shootout. Its ridiculous that the NHL still is ending games on a practice drill. Hopefully the league ends up making both of those be rule changes during future regular seasons.

The whole thing was the enormous success even bigger than the NHL could’ve asked for. For the sport as a whole, this tourney (and these two games) were the biggest thing hockey’s had for over a decade. Just spectacular. 354 days until the Olympics.

USA! USA! USA!

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