Connor Hellebuyck and Auston Matthews celebrate Team USA's 3-1 round-robin win over Canada at the ... [+]
Monday will be decision day at the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off.
As the scene shifts from Montreal to Boston, Team USA has guaranteed itself a spot in Thursday’s championship game thanks to regulation wins over Finland and Canada in Montreal.
Their opponent is yet to be determined.
The tournament is using the three-point scoring system that’s standard in international hockey and is also used in the PWHL. The Americans’ three challengers each have two points: Canada beat Sweden in overtime in its opener on Wednesday and Finland beat Sweden in overtime on Saturday.
So the door is open for all three squads. Canada will face Finland at 1 p.m. ET on Monday at TD Garden in Boston, then the Swedes will take on the United States at 8 p.m. ET. Both games will air on TNT/TruTV/Max in the U.S. and on Sportsnet in Canada.
To earn a rematch against the rival Americans, Canada must regroup quickly after dropping a 3-1 decision in an intense affair on Saturday night. The emotions exploded off the opening puck drop, with a series of three fights in just nine seconds, but each side took only one additional minor penalty for the rest of the game.
Canada’s Connor McDavid turned on his jets to gain separation and beat U.S. goalie Connor Hellebuyck to open the scoring just 5:31 into the first period. Jake Guentzel tied the game less than five minutes later, also on a play off the rush, then Dylan Larkin scored what proved to be the game winner on a 2-on-1 with 6:27 left in the second period.
The Canadians were missing two key defensemen on Saturday. Shea Theodore suffered an upper-body injury against Sweden and is on a week-to-week timeline, and Cale Makar missed Saturday’s game due to illness. The roster spots were filled by Travis Sanheim and Thomas Harley, an emergency call-up who was not even permitted to practice with his team before taking to the ice on Saturday.
Coming into the tournament, goaltending was the biggest question mark for Canada. Jordan Binnington has started both games and given up five goals on 48 shots for a 2.41 goals-against average and .896 save percentage. That’s the second-best record in the tournament but pales in comparison to Hellebuyck in the U.S. net. He has surrendered just two goals on 47 shots for a 1.00 GAA and .957 save percentage.
Meanwhile Canada’s opponent is coming into Monday’s game brimming with confidence. Finland’s talent pool on the blue line was decimated by injuries before the tournament began, leading the tiny nation of five million short on experience on the back end. But after getting shelled in a 6-1 loss to the U.S. in their opener, the Finns switched from Juuse Saros to Kevin Lankinen in goal and kept pace with Sweden on Saturday, before Mikael Granlund delivered the dagger in overtime.
With 21 saves on 24 shots, including two game-savers in overtime, Lankinen has been named as the starter against Canada. He’ll come into the game with a 2.91 GAA and .875 save percentage.
If Monday’s early game is decided in regulation time, the winner will face the United States in the championship game. Sweden could achieve a tie in the standings, but would lose the tiebreaker to either team, having lost both head-to-head matchups.
If Canada or Finland wins in overtime or a shootout, the Swedes would have a chance to advance with a regulation win over the Americans. And since their spot is already assured, the U.S. may not bring their ‘A’ game on Monday evening.
Matthew Tkachuk, the Stanley Cup winner who has been a force in the first two games, didn’t take a shift during most of the third period on Saturday. He may sit out on Monday in order to rest up for the final, which would allow Chris Kreider to draw in for his first game action.
U.S. coach Mike Sullivan could also elect to rest Hellebuyck and give one of his other goalies a start. The fans in Boston would probably love to see Bruins’ netminder Jeremy Swayman or Boston University alumnus Jake Oettinger in the red, white and blue. Hellebuyck also played his college hockey less than an hour away, at UMass Lowell.
Having two important games close out the round-robin on Monday is an ideal outcome for the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association, who collaborated to stage this tournament as a precursor to their players’ returning to the Winter Olympics in 2026 for the first time since 2014. Even though this tournament featured just four teams and seven games, the players’ excitement about playing best-on-best for their countries has been palpable, and that has manifested with top-level hockey on the ice and plenty of buzz among fans — both in the arena and on television.
Per Front Office Sports, Wednesday’s opener between Canada and Sweden set a new benchmark on TNT and TruTV with one million average viewers, and was the most-viewed non-playoff game ever on Max. Thursday’s matchup between the U.S. and Finland drew nearly 1.5 million viewers on ESPN, out-drawing any NHL All-Star Game since ESPN/Disney re-acquired the rights in 2022.
Before the tournament kicked off on Wednesday, the NHL and the Players’ Association announced an ongoing commitment to international hockey going forward, with a return of the World Cup of Hockey in February of 2028 and the intention to continue every four years, midway between each Olympiad.
At Wednesday’s presser, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman referred to the 4 Nations Face-Off as “simply a sampler” of what’s to come. The appetites of players and fans have now been whetted for more.
