Everything you need to know about 4 nations provides for the final against the US Canada battle

Athletics has a living reporting of USA against Canada in the 4 nations face-off championship.

Are you ready to adapt to the face-off championship between Canada and the United States on Thursday evening, but you have not seen any previous games of the one-week tournament?

You came in the right place.

Hello, friend! Let us catch up with what you need to know about the NHL competition final.

What is the face of the 4 nations?

Let us first remove the technical data out of the way, right?

The FACE-OFF of the 4 nations is an international hockey tournament with NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States that represent their home countries. The four teams met in a round-robin tournament, with the first two games played for each team in the Bell Center in Montreal. The last round-robin game of every team and the final on Thursday will take place in the TD Garden in Boston.

But what makes the 4 nations special about?

The competition not only serves as a replacement for a modest all-star game (to create space in the schedule, the NHL did not hold a all-star game this season), but it is the first time that it was given A best-on-best hockey tournament since 2016. (Well, not quite best, but we’ll be added later.)

The Pride athletes felt the representation of their state-das by the players of the all-star games of other professional sports so often, in this tournament.

Matthew Tkachuk fights with Brandon Hagel during the Face-Off game of the 4 nations on February 15th (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)

Oh yes? How come?

The passion is in the blows.

When the puck met the ice cream for the opening of the opening in the USA and Canada’s Round-Robin meetings, team USA player Matthew Tkachuk and the Canadas Brandon Hail dropped the gloves in a spirited fight. After the Fighting Majors, the Canadian Sam Bennett and the team of the Team USA from Brady Tkachuk set up. In the next shift, JT Miller and Colton Parayko also fought. After the game was only nine seconds old, each team had three men in the box who served against Majors.

Matthew’s opening struggle was the fastest of all time in an international NHL game and exceeded the previous record of 20 seconds in the 1996 World Cup. This record was set up during another matchup between Canada and the USA – Matthew and Brady’s father, Keith Tkachuk , and Bill Guerin, now General Manager of Team USA, were among those involved in the Melee for the USA.

After the Matchup, the Tkachuk brothers admitted to fighting on Saturday that they were in a group council with Miller and planned every player.

“We play out there for the flag, not for the cameras,” said Hagel in response. “This is part of Canada that we have there. We don’t have to initiate anything. We have no group chats in progress. We go out to play our game, to give everything and do it for our country. “

Matthew cut back on Wednesday and said: “The other team doesn’t like it if it has no group chats.”

“Our team doesn’t care about something they say,” he said. “There was a lot of chatter and discussions from individuals, but we take care of one thing in this room, and we have millions of people who watch us and support us in this country. And we play very proudly for you. “

USA against Canada started in madness 😳

📺: ABC/ESPN+/Disney+ pic.twitter.com/brwlxzMB7J

– ESPN (@SPN) February 16, 2025

What about all of this?

Apart from fighting, they accept some boos. In the same US Canada game, Montreal fans have the US national anthem in protest against President Donald Trump’s repeated proposal, Canada for the 51st state becomes the North American trade agreement that Trump signed in 2020.

This is not the first time that Canadian fans have boosted the US anthem at the recent sporting events in protest against Trump’s rhetoric.

Does the players really take care of this tournament?

The athlete Asked more than 110 NHL players.

“The last time we had a full international, best best tournament was the World Cup, and that was a week until I did the NHL,” said a team of Canada’s player. “We didn’t have that in my entire career. … With the Olympic Games next year you want to do well – to obviously win the 4 nations and hopefully be part of these events in the next seasons. “

“I’m there, so I’ll take care of it,” said a Swedish team player. “You also see the overall picture that the Olympic Games are right around the corner. So it is a great opportunity for me to show who I am and it is a team of coaches that I have not had too much to do in the past. Absolutely, it is important to me. “

And the only participating player who was not interested?

“I prefer to go home (my home country),” he said. “I would rather have a two -week break. It is shit that you miss the two -week break, but it’s cool that you are playing against the best players. Apart from the Russians, there must be no in there. That’s stupid. You are currently the best players. “

Over the whole “best” thing …

Some could argue that the face-off of the 4 nations is not a real shop window for the best talent due to its exclusivity. Countries that produce first-class NHL talents such as Russia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are not included. NHL superstars like the German -born Leon Draisaitl and the Russian Nikita Kucherov, who are two of the three best scorers of the NHL this season, cannot participate.

A main factor for the Roster Construction and why only four teams represent is that there must be enough NHL skaters to complete a full team. That is why there is no German team, for example. Russia has the NHL representative for skating, but the league did not allow its participation due to the country’s war against Ukraine.

Despite the imperfections, 4 nations are what we have best seen for the best hockey since 2016 when Canada won the world championship of hockey. This tournament started in 1996 and occurred again in 2004 and 2016.

Team United States and Team Canada will compete during the game 4 nations on February 15th (Andre Ringuette / 4NFO / World Cup of Hockey via Getty Images).

And so we meet again …

The United States and Canada were very strongly regarded as the best teams in the tournament. There is no real surprise to see how to reach the championship.

Canada won his first game against Sweden in OT on February 12th. The United States defeated Finland 6: 1 on February 13th. The two power plants met days later for their second game, with the USA winning 3-1. After the United States secured two victories, they also secured their place in the championship.

A Canadian victory against Finland in his third and last round-robin match organized the North American nations on Thursday evening for a reservations in the title game. It is broadcast on ESPN, ESPN+, Sportsnet and TVAS at 8 p.m.

Who is the favorite?

The Americans are considered an easy favorite, even though they fight some vigorously. As a precaution, Matthew Tkachuk did not play in the last game of the team after not ending the game against Canada with a injury to the lower body. Brady Tkachuk left the last game against Sweden after working with the net. Charlie McAvoy was held out of the last game due to an injury to the upper body, as was Auston Matthews with pain in the upper body. Everyone except McAvoy, who is traveling with a shoulder injury, will probably play on Thursday.

After he hoped to play in the championship, Norris Trophy Trophy Trophy’s winner, Quinn Hughes, graded on Thursday evening on Thursday evening on Thursday evening, was downgraded after not receiving a medical release, said his agent Pat Brisson.

Nevertheless, the team USA has the Stud goalkeeper and a likely tournament -MVP in Connor Hellebuyck. Sidney Crosby by Team Canada, Connor McDavid and Nathan Mackinnon follow as The athlete‘S tournament MVP picks. What makes her surprise, Canada really lose twice against the same team with such Sternmacht?

The outstanding stars

The Tkachuk brothers were the script of this US team. Matthew has three points (2G, 1a) in two games, while Brady scored two goals in three games played.

McDavid, Mackinnon and Crosby have made the Canada team to walk.

Crosby (1G, 4a) and American Zach Werenski (5a) are bound for most points with five points each. Mackinnon, American Jake Guentzel and Finn Mikael Granlund are bound in goals with three per piece for the competitive advantage.

Required reading

(Photo: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)