The confrontation of the 4 nations is officially completed, and it turned out to be a resounding success for the NHL. Edmonton’s Oilers star Connor McDavid crowned the tournament around Canada to a 3-2 victory in overtime against the United States in the Championship on Thursday in Boston.
At 8:18 a.m. overtime, Toronto Maple Leafs striker Mitch Marner found a McDavid Grand Open in the slit, and McDavid snatched a shot from the American goalkeeper Connor Hellebucyck to win the match.
It was the fifth meeting of all time between Canada and the United States in a gold medal or a championship during an international tournament or the NHL Olympic Games. Sidney Crosby propelled Canada to an extension victory with a winning goal during the 2010 winter games in Vancouver, and now the torch has been transmitted to McDavid.
With so much excitement having taken place during last week, we thought that we would have broken down the winners and the losers of the 4 nations game tournament.
Rivalry of the United States-Canada: winner
It is difficult to challenge the fact that the two games between the United States and Canada were the most exciting of the 4 nations confrontation. The Americans left with a 3-1 victory at the first meeting last weekend, while Canada patinated the equipment after the championship.
The first force test between nations has provided all theaters that any hockey fan might wish. After the crowd of the Montreal Bell Center Hue “The Star-Spangled Banner”, the United States made a little exception to this when it ended up being three fights in the first nine seconds with Matthew Tkachuk And Brandon Hagel dropping the gloves for their national teams. The Americans finally scored three unanswered goals after Connor McDavid opened the scoring for Canada in the first period.
And the Championship on Thursday did not disappoint. It was an entertaining end -to -end action of the opening of the washer, and he resulted in McDavid, the largest star in sport, having the greatest moment.
It’s been a while since the United States and Canada were so uniformly equal that Canada has traditionally dominated these best tournaments in recent decades. While the Americans were extremely impressive in this tournament, they still haven’t beat Canadians in a better tournament since 1996 Hockey World Cup.
Hockey fans: winner
Whatever the country you were shooting, hockey fans were by far one of the greatest winners. After all, there was no best tournament in the world of hockey since the Hockey World Cup in 2016. NHL players, such as McDavid, Auston Matthews and Nathan Mackinnon, could not agree For their respective countries since its entry into the league before this event.
Pure and hard, relaxed and new fans have had the chance to enjoy the best sports stars by playing at the highest level. The NHL may also have won new fans who were perhaps not the biggest hockey supporters or never gave it a chance. Whatever the level of Fandom, seeing the best tournament of this caliber is certainly something that sport will have to continue for the years to come.
Jordan Binnington: Winner
While McDavid provided the winning count of the match, goalkeeper Jordan Binnington was probably the best player in Canada on Thursday evening.
By entering the comfort of the 4 nations, Canada was criticized by many to have a group of goalkeeper less than stellar. In fact, it may be the weakest of the four countries. From the start of the tournament around, Canada coach Jon Cooper chose to ride with Binnington throughout the way, and that paid significantly.
Binnington won two of his four departures and collected an average of 2.50 goals to go hand in hand with a percentage of .907 stops in the confrontation of the 4 nations. However, Thursday’s match was by far the most sensational performance that Binnington went when he organized a dangerous offensive attack in the United States only two goals. In addition to that, Binnington has made several huge stops in the range at an extension range to extend the game.
For a goalkeeper who had a history of leaving sweet goals from time to time, Binnington helped lose this label by keeping some of the best offensive players in sport out of the score sheet.
Sweden: loser
While many may have believed that the United States and Canada were on a championship course, Sweden definitely had what it took to play for the trophy.
The Swedes were led by a talented advanced group which included William Nylander, Filip Forsberg, Elias Pettersson and Jesper Bratt. However, Sweden could not win its last round match after abandoning its first two games by 4-3 in overtime.
Erik Karlsson (one goal, two assists) and striker Lucas Raymond (three assists) paved the way with Sweden with three points each. The biggest disappointment may have been the fact that the elite attackers in Sweden did not show the opportunity throughout the tournament. Nylander only harvested two assists, while Forsberg was unnecessary in the three games of the team. Nylander, who is the top scorer in Maple Leafs in Toronto this season, did not provide any of these prowess marking goals in this tournament and finally needed to show the example of Sweden.
In the end, Sweden had fire power to give the United States or Canada a race for its money. Of course, the Swedes beat the Americans, 2-1 on Monday, but it was an American team that rested many of its best players for the championship. Sweden was a team that could have made much more noise, but instead, it just fell flat.
Stars weekend: loser
The confrontation of the 4 nations took place instead of the NHL annual weekend. Regarding stars’ events, the NHL organizes a fairly respectable event with an entertaining skills competition. The league also brought back fantastic draft in 2024 with the four best voting getters selecting their own teams.
However, the weekend of the stars cannot hold a candle for what we have seen in the last week. The games proved to be extremely polarizing, it doesn’t matter who on the ice. Even for an occasional fan, this is what hockey fans will want each year with regard to what the NHL does during its mid-season interruption. Obviously, the League cannot hold this type of best tournaments on an annual basis due to the amount of clothes. Fortunately, however, for those who enjoyed this tournament around, the best NHL players will participate in the NHL Winter Olympic Games in Milano Cortina, Italy, a similar atmosphere should apply.
It is simply difficult for the NHL to return to the Ligue’s stars weekend after the success of the confrontation of the 4 nations and how much it resonated with fans.
