4 Nations Face-Off winners & losers: United States-Canada rivalry revived, All-Star weekend concept pales

The face of 4 nations has ended officially and turned out to be a resounding success for the NHL. The star of Edmonton Oilers, Connor McDavid, ended the Ronda Tournament by raising Canada to 3-2 extraordinary wins against the United States in the Thursday championship in Boston.

At the 8:18 PM, Toronto Maple Leafs striker Mitch Marner found a McDavid open to the slot, and McDavid dragged an American shooter Connor Hellebuyck, Connor Hellebuyck.

This was the fifth meeting of all time between Canada and the United States in a gold medal or championship in an international NHL tournament or Olympic Games. Sidney Crosby pushed Canada an extraordinary victory with a game winner at the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, and now the torch has been passed to McDavid.

With so much excitement over the last week, we thought we had broken down the winners and losers of the tournament in the 4 nations.

United States-Canadian rivalry: winner

It is difficult to dispute the fact that the two parties between the United States and Canada be more exciting for the face of the four nations. The Americans won a 3-1 victory at the first meeting last weekend, while Canada skated with the hardware after the championship.

The first clash between the nations provided all the theaters that any hockey fan could wish. After the Montreal Bell Center crowd blocked “The Star-Spangled Banner”, the United States took some exception as it ended up being three fights in the nine seconds of opening with the tastes of Matthew Tkachuk And Brandon Hagel dropped the gloves for his national teams. The North -Americans ended up scoring three unanswered goals after Connor McDavid opened the Canada score in the first period.

And the Thursday championship did not disappoint. A final action was entertained at the end of Puck’s opening drop, and culminated in McDavid, the largest star in the sport, with the largest moment.

It has been a while since the United States and Canada have even equalized, as Canada has traditionally dominated these best tournaments in the best time in recent decades. Although the Americans were extremely impressive in this tournament, the Canadians have not yet broken in a better tournament since 1996 since 1996.

Hockey fans: winner

Regardless of the country you took, hockey fans were, with much, one of the biggest winners. After all, there has been no better tournament for the best in the hockey world since the Hockey World Cup in 2016. NHL players, such as McDavid, Auston Matthews and Nathan Mackinnon, no They had been able to adapt to their respective countries since they entered the league before this event.

Diehard, casual and new fans had the opportunity to take the best sports stars playing at the highest level. The NHL may also have won some new fans who may not be the greatest hockey supporters or had never been given a chance. Regardless of the level of Fandom, to see that the best tournament of this best caliber is certainly something that sport will have to continue in the coming years.

Jordan Binnington: Winner

While McDavid provided the game winning game, goalkeeper Jordan Binnington was possibly the best player in Canada on Thursday night.

Entering the face of the four nations, Canada was criticized by many for having a less stellar goal group. In fact, it was perhaps the weakest of the four countries. From the beginning of the Ronda Tournament, Canada coach Jon Cooper chose to set up with Binnington all the way, and paid great fruits.

Binnington won two of his four beginnings and scored 2.50 goals in the average average to go with a percentage of .907 in the face of 4 nations. However, Thursday’s game was by far the most sensational performance that Binnington turned, while maintaining a dangerous offensive attack from the United States to only two goals. In addition, Binnington made several huge savings from the timely range of overtime to expand the game.

For a goalkeeper who had a history of letting himself go in gentle goals from time to time, Binnington helped throw this label by keeping some of the best offensive players in the sport outside the scoreboard.

Sweden: loser

Although many could have believed that the United States and Canada were in a champion collision course, Sweden definitely had what was needed to play the trophy.

The Swedes were directed by a talented front group that included William Nylander, Fiorsberg, Elias Pettersson and Jesper Bratt. However, Sweden could only win his final round game after leaving his first two games for 4-3 decisions of extension.

Erik Karlsson (a goal, two assists) and the striker Lucas Raymond (three assists) directed the road with Sweden with three points. Perhaps the largest descent was the fact that the advantages of the Sweden elite did not reach the occasion throughout the tournament. Nylander won only two assists, while Forsberg was worthless in the three teams. Nylander, the scorer of Toronto Maple Leafs this season, did not provide any skills in this tournament, and finally needed to lead, for example, for Sweden.

Ultimately, Sweden had the fire force to give the United States or Canada a candidacy for his money. Of course, the Swedes defeated the Americans, 2-1, on Monday, but it was a team in the United States who rested many of their highest players for the championship. Sweden was a team that could have made much more noise, but instead only fell.

All-Star weekend: loser

With the 4 nations, the face was celebrated instead of the annual all-year weekend of the NHL. With regard to All-Star events, the NHL celebrates a very respectable event with entertaining competition competition. The League also returned the fantasy project by 2024 with the four best votes selecting its own teams.

However, All-Star Weekend cannot contain a candle we witnessed during the last week. The games turned out to be extremely polarizing, regardless of who on the ice. Even for a casual fan, this is what hockey fans want each year when it comes to what NHL does during his half -season hiatus. Obviously, the league cannot contain this type of best tournaments annually due to the amount of wear. However, fortunately for those who have enjoyed this round round tournament, the highest NHL players will compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina, Italy, so that an atmosphere should be applied similar.

It is simply difficult for the NHL to return to the league at the weekend after the success of the 4 nations face and the amount of resonance with the fans.