Despite losing to Team USA during the round-robin portion of the 4 Nations Face-Off, Team Canada is gearing up for a rematch in the final on Thursday from Boston, in what is quickly becoming one of the most anticipated hockey games these two rivals have ever played.
After Connor McDavid opened the scoring just over five minutes into the opening frame, the Americans shut-down Canada’s high-powered offense last Saturday, and held them off the scoresheet, eventually using a Jake Guentzel empty-netter to seal a 3-1 victory. The statement was made, Team USA has arrived.
On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli were joined by Josh Clipperton of the Canadian Press, and dove into Canada’s confidence level heading into the 4 Nations Face-Off final.
Seravalli: Josh, what do you think the psyche is of Team Canada? Obviously, they’re confident, and they know they can play better, but at the same time, there’s probably a little egg on their face. Like, they got quite literally punched in the face on Saturday a couple of times, then lost and were only able to put up one goal. What do you think their confidence level is?
Clipperton: I think it should be high. I mean, as we know, they didn’t have Cale Makar and now the Americans don’t have Charlie McAvoy. So, that’s a huge flip in that situation. They need to get more to the middle of the ice with Connor Hellebuyck. They didn’t make his life difficult enough.
They have more to give, they’ve been sifting through their line combinations and I think that the Hagel-Cirelli-Marner line gives them more balance on the back end of their lineup. In terms of how their psyche is, I would be confident if I were them. At the same time, you’re coming into a difficult building and are going to be the underdogs. Or, the crowds going to be against them at least. I guess they are a slight underdog, depending on where you look. It’s going to be a really interesting to see how they start the game. The emotion has to be there. But, I don’t think you’re going to see people punching each other in the face, three times in nine seconds.
For complete coverage leading up to Thursday’s final between the heated rivals, watch the full episode below.
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