If you were apprehensive about the Four Nations tournament before the broadcast started for Sweden vs Canada last night you weren’t feeling that way for long. The opening game was superb with the Montreal atmosphere providing an electric backdrop to the proceedings.
The hockey world has been starving for best on best international hockey and even if this is a four team tournament we are going to get at least somewhat of a fix from it. Montreal understood their task and boy did they set the tone for the game. They pulled out all the stops by bringing out the big guy himself, Mario Lemieux.
Montreal LOVES Mario Lemieux ❤️ #4Nations
🇺🇸: @NHL_On_TNT & @SportsonMax ➡️ http://max.com/sports/nhl
🇨🇦: @Sportsnet or stream on Sportsnet+ ➡️ http://watch.sportsnet.ca
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— NHL (Bot) (@notnhl.bsky.social) February 12, 2025 at 9:29 PM
I can’t think of a better way to get me invested in this exhibition tournament than bringing out Super Mario with a shot of Sid watching him come out on the ice. What a scene and I’m grateful for it happening
While this was tremendous for Canadians there was a visiting team who would have to attempt and overcome the overwhelming energy at the start of the game. Let’s just say things couldn’t have started any worse for Sweden. A minute in William Nylander accidently clipped a Canadian player in the face with his stick and the Canadian power play was given their first opportunity of the tournament, bad idea.
What a ridiculous pass from Sidney Crosby to find Nathan MacKinnon for the opening goal
#4Nations
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— Hockey Daily 365 - NHL Highlights & News 🏒 (@hockeydaily365.bsky.social) February 12, 2025 at 8:31 PM
#SidDownLow with that kind of supporting cast is going to be a tall task to defend. Needless to say, this put Sweden on their heels for the first period. It was survival mode and after a Brad Marchand open net back door goal the Canadians left the period with a 2-0 lead and a lot of confidence. Canada had an 81.57 xGF% in the first period. Sweden had their work cut out for them.
There’s a lot of pride and talent on Sweden’s roster and they definitely were not going to roll over and they didn’t. The script was flipped in the second when Sweden put up a 74.58 xGF%. Thanks to a leaky Jordan Binnington Jonas Brodin was able to find the net from the boards. This was one of the things making people apprehensive about Canada despite the wealth of skating talent. Could Binnington hold up? Goals like this are evidence that he can be had.
This was a huge goal and exactly what Sweden needed. Unfortunately, one team last night had Sidney Crosby and one team did not. Despite the territorial disadvantage in the second period Canada was able to steal back their two goal lead on Crosby’s brilliance. Sid is as good as anybody who has ever played at understanding body leverage and contorting his hips to make plays. This was the full ice version of that
There really isn’t much Gustav Forsling could do there. Sid was a threat to take the puck all the way to the net with how he was driving forward. The second you go to cut him off he curls off on a mini Gretzky curl and hits the trailer. You’re between a rock and a hard place.
It wasn’t a good showing for William Nylander on this sequence. He had the turnover which sprung Crosby the other way and then he was also in Mark Stone’s neighborhood on the backcheck, but did not get over to him to prevent the scoring chance. Nylander is a wonderful player, but he was directly responsible for two of the first three goals against. You don’t have that kind of room for error when playing Canada with a loaded roster.
Sweden continued to play well into the third period and they were rewarded when Binnington had another leaky moment on Adrian Kempe’s shot found the back of the net
Erik Karlsson was excellent on this sequence. He in his nonchalant way was able to navigate through the neutral zone and slip a pass to Kempe to keep his momentum churning forward and into Canada’s zone where he was able to have enough space to use his quick release to catch Binnington napping. Karlsson has a way of making these incredibly difficult plays look like second nature. As a result we have a hockey game with Sweden pressing and Canada looking to hold on.
Sweden did press and earned the equalizer on some nifty passing off of a faceoff
So we have ourselves a tie game midway through the third and this game is officially cooking. A huge reason for this is someone I haven’t mentioned yet, Filip Gustavsson. He was excellent and rewarded Sam Hallamfor his decision to go with him. For the rest of the game Gustavsson was tasked with turning away high octane chances from some of Canada’s biggest stars.
Here is some of his work
This was on display in what was one of the most exciting 3v3 overtime periods we’ve seen.
Gustavsson made multiple ten bell saves on Nathan MacKinnon in overtime to buy his teammates time to pot the game winner. Unfortunately, for Gustavsson it wasn’t enough. Sid was going to have a hand in the result.
Crosby slow played the neutral zone which blew up Sweden’s gap control and when Marner was able to get a clean zone exit with time and space he used it to put his shot exactly where it had to be. It was a heartbreaking loss for Sweden, but one that showed a ton of resiliency and put the tournament on notice that they are going to be vying for the title. I thought Sweden’s bounce back was really good considering what they were up against in both the hockey and non-hockey aspects of this game. I was impressed with how they weathered the storm and played well enough to come all the way back and win.
One thing that deserves to be noted is the overtime period was slated for ten minutes, five more than normal. I really like this rule change and it would nerf the number of shootouts even more.
Terrible scene in Montreal, where as soon as the 3-on-3 overtime reached five minutes all the players got too tired to keep going. Fans are begging for a shootout but the players have brought out little cots and are curled up for naps.
The NHL warned us this would happen. We should have listened.
— Sean McIndoe (@downgoesbrown.bsky.social) February 12, 2025 at 11:16 PM
The other change for this tournament is they are using the 3-2-1 point system. Three points for a regulation win, two points for an OT/shootout win and one point for an OT/shootout loss. This is how it should be. I really don’t care for the artificial parity of the current standings. I’d rather teams sink or swim. If you wanted to keep fanbases interested in a season where a team won’t be making the playoffs then use the Gold Drafting system that Micah Blake McCurdy has suggested. This is the way
Sweden isn’t the first or last team that is going to lose to a Crosby led Canadian side. In fact, everybody does it. The last 26 games Crosby has been a part of have been 26 victories for Canada
Captain Canada's still got it at 37 years old 🤭 #4Nations
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— NHL (Bot) (@notnhl.bsky.social) February 13, 2025 at 12:31 AM
Sid has had a rough couple of seasons at the team level the past few years. The Penguins haven’t been competitive and I love that he has this stage right now. He deserves it.
Sidney Crosby is named Player of the Game 🇨🇦
#4Nations | #LetsGoPens
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— Hockey Daily 365 - NHL Highlights & News 🏒 (@hockeydaily365.bsky.social) February 12, 2025 at 11:18 PM
Sweden will have a few days to collect themselves and ready for their ultimate rivalry game when they face off with Finland at 1PM on Saturday.
Thanks for reading!
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