Team Canada gears up for 4 Nations final amid political tensions

With unprecedented ongoing threats from the U.S. president, Thursday’s 4 Nations game between Canada and the United States has turned into a must-watch event on both sides of the border due to political tension between the formerly friendly nations.

The nation’s pride hangs in the balance and that’s not something lost on Team Canada.

“Am I aware of what’s going on around the world? I am,” said head coach Jon Cooper on Wednesday. “I think when you’re in the position we’re in to make the country proud, to make a country be able to stick its chest out a little further, it’s rewarding, and we understand that. But … before that puck drops, I don’t think anybody will be thinking anything outside of this hockey game other than winning that game.”

“Do we all know what it means? We do. These guys are all in it for each other and know there’s an outcome we want, but there’s a process we have to go through to get that outcome. When it’s all said and done, if we pull this off, we’ll know what this will have meant for everybody at home, and we are very cognizant of that.”

The sentiment was echoed by captain Sidney Crosby.

“I think we’re a pretty hockey-proud country. I think people have a lot of pride and hopefully, we’re a team that’s represented that well to this point and hopefully, we can go out there and find a way to win it for them,” he said.

Being part of one of the biggest international hockey games in more than a decade is being absorbed by Connor McDavid.

“[I’m] really excited about it, obviously. It’s a great opportunity for our group to make our country proud,” he shared on Wednesday.

The excitement was shared by forward Brad Marchand.

“It’s hard to really understand the importance of these games for Canadians. It’s what you dream about. It’s the highest level you can play at for any player in the league. It’s just on a whole other level,” he said.

Power forward Nathan MacKinnon weighed in with the understanding of how big the game is for Canadians.

“Obviously, a very passionate group of people in here. … In a way, the biggest game we’ve played at the international level for a lot of us who haven’t been at a best-on-best. It’s really exciting.”

Sportsnet 650 host Mike Halford shared that the only major weak spot for Team Canada is in the net. Goaltender Jordan Binnington has been letting in at least one soft goal per game, something Halford says the squad can’t afford Thursday.

“The argument would be that Binnington hasn’t played poorly by any sort of standard metric because he’s made a bunch of good saves, but in a tournament that’s this high level and the amount of elite talent that’s there, is that you actually have to play at that level in order to win,” he said.

Halford added special teams have been a non-factor, so far.

“I doubt it will be tonight because it seems like it’s going to be, ‘Put the whistles away and let the boys play.’ That’s the vibe I’m getting. You’re not allowed to fight in international hockey. If that happened at the beginning of their last game, all those guys would have been gone. They would have been short-benched and it would have been complete chaos. I have a feeling let the two rivals duke it out and do whatever.”

Halford explained that it looks like Canada has a slight edge with American defenceman Charlie McAvoy out due to injury.

“That significantly weakens the U.S. Also, Canada is going to have Cale Makar in the line-up, and they didn’t have him last Saturday. I think that might actually tilt it ever so slightly. I think it’s going to be incredibly tight,” he explained.

“The four best players in this tournament are probably all Canadian, MacKinnon, McDavid, Makar, maybe Crosby. It’s going to be a defining moment for a generation of people who haven’t cheered for Team Canada on this level because it hasn’t happened in so long and it’s popped off in such a major way.”

What’s standing out, Halford said, is how the level of intensity is growing by the hour and how the U.S. is being swept up in it.

“We’ve talked to enough people who cover it from the American perspective and they’re like, ‘This has left a mark,’ on people who have no hockey or sports affiliation. There are a lot of hack politicians that have grabbed onto this as a rallying cry and I’ll be curious to see, specifically if the U.S. doesn’t win. But in the aftermath of the game, what it will be like because right now everyone is sort of walking around it,” he said.

As for fans who weren’t sure the NHL made the right decision with this tournament, Team Canada’s coach disagrees.

“Anybody who thought they were going to come in here and see an All-Star game was sorely, sorely mistaken, this has been anything but. It’s been all-stars, but it’s not been an All-Star game,” Cooper said.

Cooper added that for him, the coaching staff, including Vancouver Canucks Head Coach Rick Tocchet, and the players, everything has built up to this game.

“I’m not sure at this point, not much needs to be said by me. We’ve built for this moment. We wanted to be in this moment, now we’re here and they know what they have to do to finish it.”

The pre-game on Sportsnet gets going at 4 p.m. The puck is scheduled to hit the ice just after 5 p.m.