Alex Pietrangelo remembers what it appeared wish to view Sidney Crosby up shut at technique.
It’s one level to battle versus main avid gamers like Crosby or Connor McDavid within the NHL. It’s a further level completely to attract on the very same jacket, converse to them on the rink, and see simply how they service the ice, on a regular basis.
Pietrangelo coordinated with Crosby to win an Olympic gold medal in 2014, and a World Cup of Hockey title in 2016. But he’s by no means ever positioned himself sharing the ice with each Crosby and McDavid, “generational talents” that make the online game significantly better.
The Vegas Golden Knights defenceman will definitely attain try this for the very first time this February as a element of Team Canada’s entrance on the 4 Nations Face-Off The brand-new NHL-hosted occasion that work as an important gauging stick upfront of NHL avid gamers’ return to the 2026 Olympics in Italy, after lacking out on the final 2 Games.
“The goal for all of us is to grow the game and have the game being seen worldwide,” Pietrangelo knowledgeable press reporters on Thursday, a day after the 23-player lineups for all 4 nations had been launched.
“You get two of the best players, if not the two best players playing with each other in certain situations … that’s a pretty fun thing to watch.”
Crosby and Pietrangelo are the hyperlink to Team Canada’s previous. They stand for Olympic gold in Sochi, and the protecting maker of a bunch that locked out Sweden within the gold-medal online game.
Joining them will definitely be a bunch of avid gamers which have really been Canada’s current for a while, but which have really by no means ever had the likelihood to attract on a Canadian sweatshirt on the Olympics, consisting of McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon.
The occasion, which moreover consists of Sweden and Finland, startsFeb 12 inMontreal That metropolis will definitely divide organizing obligations with Boston, ending in a nationwide championship within the final metropolis onFeb 20.
Here are 5 factors to grasp about Canada’s group upfront of that occasion:
Tough opponents
Like McDavid and MacKinnon, numerous different nations’ celebrities are acquiring their very first desire of worldwide best-on-best play, additionally.
Finland flaunts in all probability the easiest two-way forward worldwide in Aleksander Barkov, that understands some extent or extra regarding main a champion group, after captaining the Florida Panthers to the Stanley Cup this earlier springtime.
Sweden, on the similar time, is supplied with fee and talent, from the Vancouver Canucks’ Elias Pettersson to Leafs celebrityWilliam Nylander On heaven line, the Swedes have expertise in Erik Karlsson and two-time Stanley Cup champ Victor Hedman.
No one stays from the American group that collapsed out of the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. That group ended up final of their group, many thanks partly to shedding plenty of gifted younger avid gamers to the 23-and-under Team North America.
But this American group resembles the group to defeat. It begins with the best triad in web, led by ruling Vezina Trophy champion and Winnipeg Jets starter, Connor Hellebuyck.
The group moreover flaunts 2 of the final 4 Norris Trophy champions for most interesting defenceman within the group in Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes and Adam Fox.
Up entrance, the Americans will definitely have the power to ship among the many highest shooters worldwide in Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews, along with educated forwards like Jack Hughes, Winnipeg’s Kyle Connor and Jack Eichel.
Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk and his Stanley Cup- champ bro, Matthew, will definitely exist, additionally, making the Americans more difficult and undoubtedly way more bothersome to wager.
An aspect may moreover almost definitely to the Americans when it issues data. Several avid gamers accomplished with one another on the united stateNational Team Development Program Having 2 collections of bros doubtless doesn’t harmed, both.
Olympic tryout
The Olympics will not be entrance of thoughts for the 23 Canadian avid gamers on the ice come February.
“There’s guys that can play well and make a good impression, but I think the 23 of us are there to try and win [the 4 Nations Face-Off],” Vegas Golden Knights forward Mark Stone claimed, when requested whether or not he considers the occasion as a risk to contend for an Olympic space.
Even if avid gamers aren’t claiming it, there’s no query the occasion is a figuring out stick for all 4 nations to see what jobs, that performs nicely with one another, and that monitoring groups need on their lineups in 2026.
For followers, it’s moreover a desire of what to anticipate on the Olympics, having not had a best-on-best occasion with NHL avid gamers in nearly a years.
Canadian GM Don Sweeney claimed the monitoring group selected the easiest 23 avid gamers that they assume can win an occasion at the moment.
But understanding NHL avid gamers will definitely belong to the Olympic program in 2026 and 2030, the group moreover frolicked functioning to acknowledge avid gamers that won’t put together to press someone else out of a lineup space at the moment, but that may contribute on Team Canada in a while.
“We wanted to find that balance of identifying that next core of great players,” Sweeney claimed.
Bedard’s noninclusion
Speaking of the long run technology of great avid gamers, one title lacking out on from the Canadian lineup is Connor Bedard.
The 19-year-old hasn’t had an eye-popping interval, signing up 19 components in 26 video video games on basement-dwellingChicago But having Bedard on the lineup can have supplied him a desire of what a best-on-best occasion looks as if, additionally if he performed a marginal obligation.
“He’s working through that situation where he gets all the attention possible from the best players that he’s playing against each and every night,” Sweeney claimed.
“I think he’s living and breathing it right now and it’s only going to help him and continue to build his resume, and we’re excited about that. There are several other players that fall in the same category that very well could be part of [2026 GM Doug Armstrong’s] team in the Olympics.”
With the 4 Nations occasion nonetheless 2 months away, Bedard could be on high of the guidelines for a call-up should someone receive wounded.
Questions in web
For years, Canada had a disgrace of treasures in web, from Martin Brodeur, to Roberto Luongo, and most these days, Carey Price.
This time round, there’s no confirmed wager. There are 2 Stanley Cup champions in Jordan Binnington and Adin Hill, plus the Montreal Canadiens’ Sam Montembeault.
Compare that with the American lineup. If Hellebuyck fails, the group can rework to Jake Oettinger or Jeremy Swayman.
Sweeney minimized the problems regarding Canada’s goaltending, applauding the three netminders for his or her competitors and expertise having enjoyable in high-stakes video video games.
“We were a lot more calm in picking the goaltenders than maybe what the outside world was viewing,” the GM claimed. “I think we had a tremendous amount of choices and some guys that have played really well.”
Experience within the storage locker area
While Canada is the underdog in web, they may have a profit within the storage locker area.
Beyond Crosby and Pietrangelo’s expertise successful Olympic gold, there are moreover a blended 20 Stanley Cup rings on the Canadian group. Five avid gamers on the lineup have really placed on the captain’s C for Canada at a worldwide occasion.
Head teacher Jon Cooper claimed the group considered administration when selecting avid gamers.
“You can never underestimate how much that matters: When the game’s on the line, when there’s 20,000 people at the edge of their seat, who’s under control in those situations?” he claimed.
“When maybe a game is sliding, the ebbs and flows and ups and downs of a hockey game, who are the players that you know have proven to be able to excel in those situations and calm the waters?”
Hockey Canada hasn’t revealed the group’s administration group but. It will surely be beautiful the captain isn’t Crosby, that authored amongst one of the vital unforgettable minutes in Canadian hockey background by racking up the online game champion for the males’s group on the 2010 Olympics.
