In less than a month, we finally witness something resembling international best-on-best hockey between NHLers for the first time since the World Cup in 2016 or, for the purists, the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The 4 Nations Face-Off begins Feb. 12 in Montreal. The NHL’s 2024-25 schedule will break Feb. 10, leaving the coaching staffs of Canada, Finland, Sweden and the USA a small window to make their rosters gel as quickly as possible.
Chances are, bench bosses Jon Cooper, Antti Pennanen, Sam Hallam and Mike Sullivan have their lineups mocked up already. We figure now is a good time to do the same at Daily Faceoff. Using the rosters announced in early December, how do we envision the lines mapping out for each nation?
CANADA – By Matt Larkin
Forward lines
Sam Reinhart – Connor McDavid – Nathan MacKinnon
Brandon Hagel – Brayden Point – Mitch Marner
Brad Marchand – Sidney Crosby – Mark Stone
Seth Jarvis – Anthony Cirelli – Travis Konecny
Scratch: Sam Bennett
Defense pairs
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Shea Theodore – Alex Pietrangelo
Josh Morrissey – Colton Parayko
Scratch: Travis Sanheim
Goaltenders
Jordan Binnington
Adin Hill
Scratch: Sam Montembeault
PP1
Sam Reinhart – Connor McDavid – Sidney Crosby
Nathan MacKinnon – Cale Makar
PK1
Brandon Hagel – Anthony Cirelli
Devon Toews – Colton Parayko
As is so often the case with a talent pool as deep as Canada’s, we have star players playing outside their natural positions or roles in the name of icing the best lineup possible. I’ve thus loaded up with McDavid and MacKinnon on a super line, and Reinhart, who prides himself on adapting to different circumstances, can shift to the left wing without too much trouble. That line may never lose the puck. Point manning the second line ensures it has a goal-scoring threat, too. The bottom six has two shutdown trios: the veteran Marchand-Crosby-Stone unit should win its relatively sheltered matchups, while Jarvis-Cirelli-Konecny will be extremely tough to score on. Sam Bennett waits in the wings for when the going gets physical, a.k.a. the USA game. He’ll draw into the lineup for that one.
The defense pairs and goalie choice are straightforward; there’s little reason to break up teammates Toews and Makar and Theodore and Pietrangelo, and Binnington, the most experienced goalie of the group, gets the first crack as the starter. If only Canada brought its actual best goalie to this tournament, though.
Originally I had Marner on the top power play unit, but a wise reader suggested Crosby instead to play a net-front role using his tremendous hand-eye coordination, allowing Sam Reinhart to be the bumper, and it convinced me to make the tweak. On the penalty kill: while Marner does a great job for the Toronto Maple Leafs, there’s no way I could break up the disruptive Tampa Bay Lightning duo of Hagel and Cirelli up front. Sanheim’s penalty killing would be his best asset on this team, but since I’ve scratched him, Toews and Parayko get the PK1 nods. They have plenty of experience shorthanded.
FINLAND – By Steven Ellis
Forward lines
Artturi Lehkonen – Aleksander Barkov – Mikko Rantanen
Mikael Granlund – Sebastian Aho – Teuvo Teräväinen
Eetu Luostarinen – Roope Hintz – Patrik Laine
Joel Armia – Anton Lundell – Kaapo Kakko
Scratch: Erik Haula
Defense pairs
Esa Lindell – Miro Heiskanen
Juuso Valimaki – Olli Määttä
Niko Mikkola – Jani Hakanpaa
Scratch: Rasmus Ristolainen
Goaltenders
Juuse Saros
Kevin Lankinen
Scratch: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
PP1
Artturi Lehkonen – Aleksander Barkov – Mikko Rantanen
Patrik Laine – Miro Heiskanen
PK1
Anton Lundell – Eetu Luostarinen
Juuso Valimaki – Olli Määttä
On paper, Finland looks like the weakest of the four teams, but they always play tight hockey and make very few mistakes fundamentally, no matter the tournament. The Finns won’t beat you with pure skill, but they’ve got decent shutdown ability and good hockey sense. The recent hot play of Laine post-injury has been very promising, as have Kakko’s numbers since joining the Seattle Kraken. They won’t have the most skilled power-play but they’ll have some decent one-shot shooters, including Laine and Rantanen.
SWEDEN – By Uffe Bodin
Forward lines
Jesper Bratt – Mika Zibanejad – William Nylander
Filip Forsberg – Elias Pettersson – Lucas Raymond
Adrian Kempe – Joel Eriksson Ek – Elias Lindholm
Gustav Nyquist – William Karlsson – Viktor Arvidsson
Scratch: Leo Carlsson
Defense pairs
Victor Hedman – Rasmus Dahlin
Gustav Forsling – Erik Karlsson
Mattias Ekholm – Rasmus Andersson
Scratch: Jonas Brodin
Goaltenders
Jacob Markström
Filip Gustavsson
Scratch: Linus Ullmark
PP1
Jesper Bratt – Mika Zibanejad – William Nylander
Victor Hedman – Lucas Raymond
PK1
Adrian Kempe – Mika Zibanejad
Gustav Forsling – Mattias Ekholm
There are far more question marks than exclamation points surrounding the Swedish team right now. Can you name a single Swedish player on this roster who has been a pleasant surprise this season? Hardly anyone, to be honest. Can you name someone who has been a disappointment? Now there’s a list for you. That said, there’s always hope that some of these players can find new energy in a different environment. The goalie position seems to be the team’s biggest strength at the moment, with three viable options — assuming Ullmark manages to get his back in order before the tournament starts. The defense also looks solid, though Brodin appears to be the odd man out due to his injury troubles. Up front, Leo Carlsson will face a tough challenge breaking into the lineup as one of the four natural centers, but there’s always the possibility of slotting him in on the wing.
On special teams, Zibanejad could play a key role. After a nightmarish season, he seems to have rediscovered some form lately. While his big shot hasn’t been particularly productive for the Rangers this season, it could still become an important weapon for the Swedes on the PP. On the PK, he’s been a reliable cog for the Rangers and gets my vote of confidence here. Putting on the national team jersey seems to bring out the best in Mika, as displayed in the World Juniors in 2012 and at the World Championship in 2017. This is a good opportunity to make a statement once again.
Team USA – By Frank Seravalli
Forward lines
J.T. Miller – Auston Matthews – Matthew Tkachuk
Kyle Connor – Jack Eichel – Brady Tkachuk
Dylan Larkin – Jack Hughes – Chris Kreider
Jake Guentzel – Vincent Trocheck – Matt Boldy
Scratch: Brock Nelson
Defense pairs
Quinn Hughes – Charlie McAvoy
Jaccob Slavin – Adam Fox
Zach Werenski – Brock Faber
Scratch: Noah Hanifin
Goaltenders
Connor Hellebuyck
Jake Oettinger
Scratch: Jeremy Swayman
PP1
J.T. Miller – Auston Matthews – Jack Hughes
Quinn Hughes – Adam Fox
PK1
Vincent Trocheck – Dylan Larkin
Jaccob Slavin – Zach Werenski
The toughest portion of this exercise for me was determining the top penalty killing unit. Believe it or not, there isn’t a single one of the 13 forwards selected for Team USA that plays regularly on his NHL team’s top PK. That might not be all that surprising, and sure, guys can and do receive spot duty in big moments, but players will need to fulfill different roles than they’re used to on this team in order to help the Americans win. It would be fascinating to see both of the Hughes brothers on the same power play. Will that create instant chemistry? What if both Tkachuk brothers were used on the same penalty killing unit? That could create some instant fireworks, and maybe even lead to more penalty kills.
One of the easier calls, at least from the outset, was making Brock Nelson the healthy scratch as the 13th forward. His selection was a little puzzling to me from the start, only because he’s had such a down year production-wise compared to years past by the standard that he set. The challenge when creating line combinations in a tournament like this one is finding balance, and I tried to put players of various skillsets together to complement each other. It will be interesting to see how close these combinations end up being to what Mike Sullivan and his staff concoct for their first practice on Feb. 10. Giddy up!
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