The Four Nations Face-Off was a huge success. From start to finish, there were a bunch of great hockey games that had something for everyone to enjoy. Canada versus Sweden was one of the highest-level hockey games I’ve ever seen.
The Tkachuk brothers scoring four goals between the two of them in the USA’s first game and the three fights in nine seconds in the USA’s second game against Team Canada was a blast to watch. One huge hit by Charlie McAvoy on Connor McDavid was the icing on the cake. Great plays and great saves all around. Then, the Canada versus USA final went back and forth with lots of momentum changes. It went to a thrilling 5-on-5 overtime that ended 8:18 in.
Mitch Marner to a wide-open McDavid who fires one over the glove hand of Commerce, MI native, Connor Hellebuyck. The celebration at the end was cute. It reminded me more of a street hockey championship celebration between my friends and I outside of the local elementary school. Using some random object as a faux Stanley Cup.
Both Detroit Red Wings attendees Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond played great for their respective nations in the tournament
Lucas Raymond is putting himself on league notice as an elite player. We see him dazzling fans all the time in Detroit, but to see it in a best-on-best tournament makes it hard to ignore for hockey fans across the league.
Raymond finished the tournament with three assists in three games. Larkin, with one goal and one assist, was effective for the entirety of the tournament. He didn’t get any power play time, but when you’re on a team as stacked as Team USA is, players are asked to play different roles than they normally would on their club teams.
In an interview during the second intermission of their round-robin game versus Team Canada, Larkin was asked about his mindset for this tournament. “Just be a great teammate and do whatever it takes, work as hard as possible, and have fun with it.” Larkin set up Auston Matthews in overtime during the championship game, but Jordan Binnington made a couple of amazing saves to keep Canada alive moments before Canada scored the game-winner.
I’m proud of their efforts and the way they represented both the Red Wings and the NHL
Following the 4 Nations Face-Off, NHL action resumed with 14 games on Saturday. The Detroit Red Wings took on the Minnesota Wild at Little Caesars Arena at 12:30 pm. Any friendships that may have been forged between Larkin and his Team USA teammates Matt Boldy and Brock Faber had to be set aside because the playoff race is heating up in the Eastern Conference, and they’re going to need the points if they are going to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2015-16.
The Red Wings currently hold the first wild-card spot, but there are a whole slew of teams chasing them. Only 13 points are separating the Red Wings from the last-place team in the conference. I can’t rule any of those teams out yet.
It’s a sprint to the playoffs. The remaining 25 games will tell us who are the contenders and who are the pretenders, who is either going to stick it out with what they’ve got or make a late pit stop for fresh rubber at the deadline, and who is either going to crash and burn on the final laps or make that daring pass to get above the playoff line. In any case, it should be another exciting end to the regular season for whosoever may be pushing for those wildcard spots.