BROSSARD, Que. — Jon Cooper is thinking what you’re thinking.
The coach of Team Canada is dropping a nail gun into a barrel of dynamite.
The answer for Matthew Tkachuk, a Florida Panthers loose cannon dressed in a Team USA sweater, will be Sam Bennett, an even looser Panthers cannon all decked out in Red, White and Bruise.
“It’ll be interesting if Sam and Matthew meet in a corner at some point,” said a smiling Cooper, who also happens to coach the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“I hope nobody’s sitting here thinking Sam was brought here just to play against USA.”
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4 Nations Face-Off on Sportsnet
The inaugural edition of the 4 Nations Face-Off is here with the top players from Canada, Sweden, Finland and the United States going head-to-head in the highly anticipated best-on-best event. Watch all the games on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
Not just to play USA. But, yes, to play USA — the meanest roster among the four nations facing off in Montreal and Boston.
Sitting in his stall after an intense, hour-long practice at the Canadiens-turned-Canadians practice facility on the big-box-store outskirts of Montreal, Bennett concedes that “it’s difficult sometimes” to strike that fine balance between aggression and over-aggression. Which could prove costly for both sides, considering the fearsome firepower of these power plays.
“When I found out I was in, I already started feeling that energy and that juice. So, I think the best way is to try and not think about that. Just avoid overthinking. Just act like it’s another game,” Bennett said. “And then as soon as you get out there, your body’s gonna treat it like not just another game.”
Oh, this ain’t just another game.
This is U.S. versus Canada, best-on-best, for the first time in 11 years. And it’ll unfold inside a North American cathedral.
Memo to the arena folks in Montreal: You might want to double-check the bolts on the roof so that sucker doesn’t get blown clean off Saturday night.
“It’s a big game. Playing the Americans in Montreal, best-on-best tournament. It’s what you dream of. It’s exciting,” said Canada’s Connor McDavid. “Everybody knows, even playing minor hockey when you play against an American team, you can feel the tension.”
Simply hanging around the athletes and a city smothered in snowfall, one feels the tension rising all week. The way Canada’s power play sparked like a fantasy in under 13 seconds. How the Tkachuk brothers ran smack through the boos and chased the poor Finns out of the building and made them switch goalies already.
If the 4 Nations Face-Off is an amuse-bouche for the Olympics, Games 1 and 2 this week were but appetizers for Saturday’s feast.
“Growing up as a young kid, when you go play American teams and stuff like that, you want to beat them so bad,” Canada’s Drew Doughty said. “And I still have this feeling, at 35 years old, how bad you want to beat the Americans.
“This is probably the most exciting matchup of the tournament.”
On the matchup front, Cooper will be tweaking the lineup he deployed in Wednesday’s 4-3 overtime victory over the lighter-hitting, smoother-skating Swedes.
An all-Lightning third line, which Cooper knows and trusts, unites familiar friends Anthony Cirelli, Brayden Point and Brandon Hagel. Cooper deployed that trio in the final minute of regulation to secure a point versus Sweden.
Travis Konecny sits for Bennett, who will centre Brad Marchand on a fourth line you love to hate.
Bennett told Cooper before the circus began that he would gladly be a healthy scratch for every game. He just wanted to take part.
“And so, you’re cheering for somebody with that type of attitude,” Cooper said. “He has shown in the last couple playoffs, he rises to the occasion, these big moments. Especially when the physicality and the game is at its brightest, he’s done a heckuva job — and we expect that from him tomorrow.”
More concerning and significant is Canada’s blueline situation.
The loss of Shea Theodore (week-to-week) with an injury suffered in Game 1 forces the versatile Travis Sanheim onto Doughty’s third pairing.
Moreover, the country’s stud No. 1 defenceman, Cale Makar, missed Friday’s practice due to illness. All due respect to Theodore, but Makar is harder to replace.
The all-situations Norris winner has logged more ice than anyone in the tournament (28:06) and quarterbacks Canada’s power play.
Does Cooper expect Makar to dress?
“’Expect’ is a big word, but I’m confident,” the coach said. “I’m confident he’ll be there.”
If Makar is unable to play, the next man up is Thomas Harley, who is not yet eligible to practise with Canada and had originally planned to meet the team in Boston Sunday.
The NHL will not force Canada to start a game with five defencemen. If the Canadians did, Marchand said he’d move back, despite his inability to skate backward.
“I mean, yeah. I’ll play goalie, if you want me to play goalie,” Marchand quipped.
He’s kidding. Sort of.
Beating the U.S. means that much to Marchand, one of just three Canadians on the ’25 squad who hoisted the 2016 World Cup.
“Somehow, it’s ingrained in you. I think it’s probably just from growing up watching the different series and different games that have been played. Whether it’s Olympics or World Cups or world championships, world juniors — those games are ones that you remember … the ones you look forward to,” said Marchand, acknowledging the buildup.
“You could go 100 years, and everyone will still know the importance and get up for it — just as much they would if there was a day in between games. That rivalry will go on forever. It’ll always be biggest rivalry in hockey.”
If we discount the 2016 World Cup experiment, the layoff between the 2014 Games and Saturday has been so long, not one member of today’s Team USA was on that Sochi squad. Doughty and captain Sidney Crosby are the only tethers for Canada.
Does that gap lessen the hate, soften the rivalry?
“It’s probably made it grow, in a way — because of all these guys that haven’t played yet. They haven’t played (the U.S.) since world juniors or wherever, the last time they could play for Team Canada,” Doughty said.
“The wait has just amplified it, made you more hungry. And I know that the Americans are feeling the same way about playing us. So, it’s going to be a hard-fought game. I suggest everyone watches that one.”
OK, Drew. But only because you asked.
Team Canada’s projected lineup Saturday versus Team USA:
Reinhart – McDavid – Marner
Crosby – MacKinnon – Stone
Hagel – Cirelli – Point
Marchand – Bennett – Jarvis
Toews – Makar
Morrissey – Parayko
Sanheim – Doughty
Binnington
Hill
