• Could this be the best Team USA ever?
• How the Rangers have to manage turbulent times
• Major change might be hard to accomplish for struggling Predators
After Canada’s 4 Nations team was revealed, Sportsnet posted a “Canada Snub Squad” with 21 more players on it. Seconds after it aired, people were sending social media posts wondering why Adam Lowry, Morgan Rielly, Stuart Skinner and John Tavares weren’t included.
Welcome to Canada, where even the snubs have snubs.
One interesting difference for this tournament: the commercial breaks will be one minute longer than the 90 seconds in a regular NHL game. If coaches want, they will be able to ride top guys even more. And you know those players will demand it, feeling extra rested with the lengthier pause.
As if it already wasn’t hard enough to bet against Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid. You can picture MacKinnon staring lasers at Jon Cooper, standing up on the bench the moment someone approaches for a change.
Cooper, by the way, wasn’t giving away who will play with Crosby.
“That’s a question we will have to wait until February 12,” he laughed.
Generally, I don’t get too worked up over who makes it and who doesn’t. There are so many good choices. Canada clearly prioritized determined two-way forwards, same-team defencemen and Stanley Cup pedigree — 16 of their 23 players have a ring.
Like everyone else, I do get surprised. Seth Jarvis is a great player and deserves his spot. Maybe it’s the rest of us who are idiots for not seeing him on the radar. I was shocked that Zach Hyman was left off after establishing great chemistry with McDavid, but injury cost Robert Thomas a spot, too.
Another trend is what happened deeper down the defence pairs. With Cale Makar (Canada), Adam Fox and Quinn Hughes (USA), other blueliners primarily recognized for power play talent were squeezed out. The era of the pure defensive defenceman is over, but the edge went to Colton Parayko and Travis Sanheim — who coaches/management feel are more dependable in their own end. Sanheim’s bonus is being able to play either side, critical if someone else is hurt mid-tournament.
Canadian GM Don Sweeney’s made it clear he doesn’t see the same concerns others do about goaltending, and you can see the philosophy: Jordan Binnington and Adin Hill won Stanley Cups by doing what they needed to do for strong teams. (Sweeney pointed out how good Hill looked in Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Edmonton.)
We’ll see what happens on the ice, but in advance, this reminds me a bit of the 1991 Canada Cup. The Canadians had a similar makeup, elite Hall-of-Fame talent surrounded by driven two-way stars who accepted roles, and a goalie (tournament MVP Bill Ranford), who’d won the Stanley Cup a year earlier. They overcame Wayne Gretzky’s injury in Game 1 of the best-of-three Final to sweep the United States.
We’re nine weeks away, but it’s another step towards something we’ve missed for too long. Best-on-best and I’m excited to see it.
32 THOUGHTS
1. Only one Canada player is from an NHL team with a below-.500 points percentage — Sam Montembeault (Montreal, .420). One executive, watching frustration pour out from Connor Bedard and Steven Stamkos over the past week, said Wednesday he felt their disappointment multiplied knowing the lack of team success would hurt their Team Canada chances.
2. Let’s look at the other countries. On paper, this might pass the 1996 World Cup champions as the best Team USA I’ve ever seen. But you’ve got to win to truly snare that honour. My biggest surprise was no John Carlson. He’s a great player, and watching Washington without him last season convinced me even more he’s one of the best defenders in hockey.
The biggest criticism coming GM Bill Guerin’s way was that he didn’t select offensive sensations like Cole Caufield and Clayton Keller (I’ll get to Tage Thompson in a minute). A theory: Guerin knows scoring won’t be the problem. His back-end isn’t the biggest, so he went with the likes of Chris Kreider and Brock Nelson because he may need that size to disrupt opponents before they even get to the net.
3. Okay, Tage Thompson. Of anyone who wasn’t picked, he was the guy who shocked me the most. Kreider’s got 123 playoff games, Nelson 78, Vincent Trocheck 56 (including 20 points in 16 games last year). Thompson is still waiting to make his NHL playoff debut. Making the post-season is bigger than any one player, but I couldn’t help but watch Buffalo’s collapse Tuesday against Colorado and wonder if the Sabres’ inability to build momentum penalizes Thompson.
4. A proud Swedish reader says Canadians and Americans have tunnel vision about this tournament, completely disrespecting the Scandinavian opposition. The Swedes are very, very strong — more than capable of reaching the final. It’s a short tournament where two teams won’t even get a championship shot, so you have to feel good about your goaltending. Sweden does.
What also struck me was they didn’t go as young as they could have. Victor Hedman said he’s played with almost everyone on the roster internationally. Yes, there’s Leo Carlsson, but no William Eklund, no Fabian Zetterlund — both rising with Macklin Celebrini in San Jose. By choosing Viktor Arvidsson and Gustav Nyquist, Sweden’s sending a message that this tournament isn’t about prepping for the future. The time is now.
5. Finland’s going to be Finland: greater than the sum of its parts, a pain in the butt to play. They are consistent in best-on-best: Bronze in 1998, Silver in 2006, Bronze in 2010, Bronze in 2014, runner-up at the 2004 World Cup. Their biggest obstacle is it’s hard for them to outscore anyone. Aside from the 1998 semifinals, where they lost 7-4 to Russia, the defeats that eliminated them from a gold medal saw them score a combined six goals in four games. You can’t complain about any of its roster decisions, but they have to keep scores low — which they’ve proven they can do.
6. Biggest team snub: Washington. Tied for second in the NHL, zero Capitals were selected. Options included Carlson, Logan Thompson and Tom Wilson. Brian MacLellan and Chris Patrick might never admit it, but they won’t be sad to see Carlson on a beach. And Spencer Carbery will use it as a motivator.
7. Injury replacements: anyone with a “legitimate injury” can be replaced up to and including Feb. 12, the opening day of the event.
8. I’m even less qualified to judge world junior rosters, but I’ve never heard louder complaining about snubs from an invitation camp than this year’s from Team Canada. We’ll see in January.
9. Not sure how Tyler Seguin’s four-to-six month timeline is going to play out, but I can tell you what Dallas’s Western Conference competition is thinking: the Stars are going to take advantage of that LTIR space and aim for Seguin to return in the playoffs. “That’s not good for anyone else,” one exec grimaced.
10. As the Rangers figure out where they are going from here, I realized how bad things were during their 6-2 loss in Edmonton two Saturdays ago. Watch Jonathan Quick on the goal that makes it 2-0 Oilers. He’s one of my favourites, re-inventing himself from two-time Stanley Cup champion starter, two-time Vezina finalist and 2012 Conn Smythe winner into Igor Shesterkin‘s sturdy backup. But he maintains a high standard, demanding a lot of himself. When Nurse’s shot beats him, he’s mad at himself, at first. But then he lifts his mask — which is rare — looks up and, well, you can see the disbelief.
Quick stopped the first 18 shots he faced in Edmonton’s first-period deluge, until the Oilers finally broke through at 17:34. The second one, the one that had Quick so upset, was shorthanded with nine seconds remaining in the period. A total breakdown allows Nurse to walk right in, alone. That’s a massive mistake at the end of a period, something you cannot allow.
11. The Rangers have lost six of seven, and held on for dear life for their one victory, 4-3 over Montreal. Two of those defeats came before GM Chris Drury let teams know he’d be willing to discuss Kreider and Jacob Trouba, the rest as the team absorbed the aftershocks. Clearly, Drury saw 12-4-1 as a mirage, with underlying numbers indicating the Rangers bleed chances and were trending badly. It’s Drury’s job to have big-picture vision. Players think differently. They care about Ws and Ls, especially these Rangers, knowing they will be judged in April, May and June, not November.
12. A few thoughts on the overall picture: first, there’s been talk about this re-opening old wounds from Barclay Goodrow’s release last summer — not that he was cut, but that he wasn’t given proper notice it was coming. I work in a business (sports media) where we are similar to the athletes we cover in one key area: in the vast majority of cases, we don’t write our own exits. I’ve been around long enough to know it’s very likely that when my day comes, I’m not going to be thrilled about how it happens. I’ve been through it before and seen it happen to others. That’s life in the big city and very real. When players see that occur, they don’t only think about the guys who are named, they look at Trouba (captain) and Kreider (longest-serving Ranger) and think, “If it happens to them, it can happen to me.”
Go back to Trouba’s comments at the start of camp. He knew this was going to be his last season in New York, he had time to process it and was prepared for the reality. You have time to process things in the summer. When it happens in-season, you still need to process things, but you also have games to play and it can screw with your head. That’s all real, and you can see it with them.
13. All of that said, there comes a point where you have to move past it and do your job. You have to show pride in yourself and for your friends/teammates. Even if you motivate yourself to win in spite of management, you do that. It isn’t unreasonable for the Rangers to expect with three days off that the players re-set and re-focus.
14. Drury is working to figure out what he actually can do, up and down the roster. Trade protection — limited or full — is a hurdle. Ottawa is being very careful about what it says, but I do think that’s a team the Rangers have talked to.
15. Things haven’t really changed with Trouba since the summer. Even if he can’t block a trade to a particular destination, how interested is someone going to be if he will be unhappy with a trade before next season? As for Kreider, the initial reaction was, “Why would they want to trade this guy?”
16. Other stuff to keep an eye on: I do not believe JT Miller has asked for a trade. It is a huge vote of confidence in his game that Team USA took him as planned even though he is on hiatus.
17. Despite a typically manic Vancouver season, the Canucks are holding strong. One reason is Pius Suter, admirably filling some of Miller’s minutes. There’s a great story about Suter from when he was 17, and agent Georges Muller invited him to a party at the latter’s home. “One player asked, ‘Who’s this guy?’ Some people thought I was (supposed to be) serving food,” Suter laughed. He wouldn’t name who it was, but added when that player (an NHLer) “saw me at the camp, he said I was pretty good.” Suter had options in the summer of 2023, but one of the reasons he chose Vancouver was Rick Tocchet. “Straight shooter, no mind games, you know where he’s at” and likes it there because, “You want to play where everybody cares.”
18. I think Pittsburgh has real interest in Nils Hoglander. Meanwhile, the Penguins have shoppers for Drew O’Connor.
19. Teams who like Trent Frederic — and playoff-bound clubs love this type of player — are debating how serious Boston is about signing him.
20. The goalie market is high-stakes poker. Carolina is looking, but they are patient. Are there more goalies available than teams looking for one? If so, the Hurricanes can afford to wait. Colorado’s also very deliberate, and are going to give Scott Wedgewood a run.
21. Nashville’s players talked confidently on Wednesday morning, saying there was plenty of season remaining and things were getting better. They are shocked at their lack of scoring, disbelieving how they have such a poor record with the league’s best penalty kill and Juuse Saros 10 points above the league-average save percentage. The Predators made a couple of systemic changes, allowing their defencemen to pinch in the offensive zone and not being as solely focused on getting the puck up-ice on the breakout. (Sometimes, going d-to-d is not a bad thing.) I liked their attitude. Then, they lost 3-2 to Toronto, the 17th time in 26 games they haven’t scored more than twice. I didn’t see this coming, that’s for sure.
22. Jonathan Marchessault: “I didn’t sign here for one year, I signed for five. So I’m committed to working this out.
23. I’m not sure how much radical surgery can be done. Like the Rangers, there are a lot of no-move clauses in Nashville. They’ve also seen Dante Fabbro and Philip Tomasino show renewed energy in Columbus and Pittsburgh, which always has teams re-evaluating what went wrong. Juuso Parssinen isn’t playing right now, and if that doesn’t change, it will get to a point where he’ll want a fresh start, too. It’s not selfish, players want to play. But I’d be worried about that if I was Nashville.
New additions means someone on the existing roster gets squeezed and wishes for a new existence. Coach Andrew Brunette hasn’t sat one of his major players, which is one of the few cards he’s still got to play. But that’s not easy. When a major free agent picks you, it’s not easy to make them the scapegoat. And, when you’re struggling, the other managers throw anvils, not life preservers, and GM Barry Trotz doesn’t want to make things worse.
24. There is definite interest in Hit King Jeremy Lauzon, currently out with injury. He’s signed for one more year at a very reasonable $2 million. But the organization loves him and has zero desire to go down that road.
25. The Panthers, re-establishing themselves as the team to beat, will look to add a right-shot defender at some point.
26. Kyle Bukauskas told a great story on the pod last week. After Toronto lost 5-1 in Florida, a few of the ex-Panthers playing for the Maple Leafs said hi to the Panthers. One of them greeted a former teammate with, “You caught us at the wrong time.” That ended a four-game losing streak for Florida.
27. Rasmus Sandin was hilarious on the Nylander brothers being together in Toronto: “Alex, that’s good for him to have Willy close-by. He’s really good at getting the best out of both of them,” Sandin paused. “Kinda weird,” he laughed. Remember: when the defenceman was traded to Washington, William put his arm around Sandin and walked him out of practice. “Willy is Willy, swagger and cool, but he’s the nicest guy ever. But sometimes he is, like, he is five. Same thing with his brother, he’s younger, so it’s like he’s three. But they are as they are, they’re fantastic and I love those two guys.
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32 Thoughts: The Podcast
Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL insider Elliotte Friedman and host Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.
28. Worst injury of the week: Trevor Lewis getting hurt in career game number 999. Apparently, his family was already in Los Angeles preparing to celebrate the millennial milestone, which was to be Wednesday night versus Dallas. The good news is he will return sometime in January and get there. Lewis has scratched and clawed to get here.
29. Draft guru Sam Cosentino says that after the recent CHL vs. USA prospects games, there are four contenders for the first overall pick: James Hagens (Boston College), Porter Martone (Brampton Steelheads), Michael Misa (Saginaw Spirit) and Matthew Schaefer (Erie Otters).
30. From the 32 Thoughts podcast with Kyle Bukauskas and David Amber, the 4 Nations Rosters accuracy test: Team Finland: Kyle 16 (of 17 named on Wednesday), Dave 15, me 14. Sweden: Dave 15, me 14, Kyle 13. USA: Kyle and I 15, Dave 12. Canada: Me 12, Kyle 11, Dave 10. Overall: Kyle and I 55, Dave 52. Fifty-five of 68 is 81 per cent, which is kind of weak for this, to be honest. Amber makes a point of saying he ignores my work, so please tweet the low score at him.
31. Now that Calgary and Columbus have played their two games against each other, it has to be said: they — especially the players — did an exceptional job honouring the Gaudreau brothers and hosting their families. Shout out to teammate Ryan Leslie, who did several first-class interviews.
32. Wife is a huge Sebastian Maniscalco fan, so we went to see him a couple weeks ago in Toronto. Great standup, well worth it. Not only was he good, but so were the opening acts — Pat McGann and Pete Correale. McGann riffed on being a hockey parent, joking about tournament weekends hoping your child’s team loses so “you can have your life back,” adding, “Do you know what a tryout is?” He paused, then said, “Do you have $2,500?” That one brought a big laugh.
