Covering the whole length of the pitch, odd-man rushes, showstopping saves, three fights in the opening nine seconds; surely we’re talking about the Stanley Cup playoffs, right? We’re not?
Best-on-best hockey, defined as any hockey played between the top-performing players of the NHL, returned to action this past week-and-a-half at the 4 Nations Face-Off, hosted jointly by the Bell Centre in Montréal and the TD Garden in Boston, and let’s just say: It rocked, guys.
I was (perhaps naively) under the assumption that, in the way that players swing their sticks around at 50 percent effort in the divisional NHL all-star event, they’d treat this tournament the same. Besides, the NHL season has already resumed.
Well, I sure forgot the significance of wearing your nation’s colors. It’s simply different. As Team Canada’s Nathan MacKinnon, who was named Tournament MVP, said: “To play for your country is playing for pride, it’s a dream come true.”
The tournament started with a round-robin. All four nations (United States, Canada, Finland, Sweden) played three games, designed so that every team would see each other at least once. The playoff ends with the championship game, played by the top two round-robin finishers.
To not much surprise, the U.S. and Canada, often considered as the two front-runners on the international hockey stage, finished with 6 and 5 points respectively, setting them up for a rubber match against each other in the championship game.
We were not disappointed. This was, in terms of skill, the highest level of hockey we’ve ever seen. Hell, even the cameraman had trouble keeping up with the speed. Canada’s Nathan MacKinnon opened the scoring, with Matthew Tkachuck and Jake Sanderson of the U.S. reacting first. Shortly after Sanderson’s goal, Sam Bennett tied it, 2-2. The most eventful non-scoring third period took us to extra time, and oh boy — although it didn’t last long, it was glorious.
The fireworks of overtime had me standing up in front of the TV. Jordan Binnington, goaltender for Team Canada, had what was, in my opinion, the greatest goaltending performance ever seen on the international stage. Snare after snare, left-to-right and blocker, he stopped the U.S. as they did about everything they could — except for covering the world’s greatest forward Connor McDavid wide open in the slot. A rocket of a shot gave Canada the win. After his Stanley Cup Final loss last year, you can’t help but be happy for him.
This game was the cherry on top of an event that represents what hockey is all about. The scene alone of Canadians, Americans, Finns, and Swedes alike all celebrating every goal is enough. An exhilarating game and an amazing community have undoubtedly brought in new fans with this event. I am vigorously nodding my head in agreement with hockey fans everywhere that, compared to this tournament, the traditional NHL All-Star Game weekend looks like mere child’s play, and that I’d love to see this every year.
This was a blast through and through and, despite the drawback of injury risk, certainly a net positive for the sport and the fans. It did exactly what the NHL wanted it to do; bring engagement to the international stage, deliver a level of hockey the likes of which we’ve never seen, and get everyone reading this Tartan article to watch the highlights of the championship game. They think they can get all Tartan readers to be hockey fans, too. Trust me, they said that. Verbatim.
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