Well that sucked.
Last night, Canada dropped a crucial game to their American rivals by a score of 3-1 in what was truly a remarkable hockey game at the new 4 Nations Face-off tournament.
Everything had been leading up to this game, with the entire hockey world ready to see these two North American powerhouses face off against each other.
Another aspect adding to the action is undoubtably the ongoing political turmoil ongoing between these two countries over the past month. That includes Canadian fans at Montreal's Bell Centre outwardly booing the American national anthem - even after being told by the P.A. announcer not to.
How the "Star-Spangled Banner" sounded inside Bell Centre before USA-Canada at #4Nations.
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) February 16, 2025
Plenty of boos. pic.twitter.com/EFoKJMFuAh
When the puck finally dropped for the start of the game, three fights broke out in the first nine seconds of gameplay. Nine seconds.
I think it's safe to assume those fights didn't come from nowhere.
After the excitement of the fighting, the teams finally got around to playing hockey, and Canada was the team that drew first blood.
Drew Doughty sent a pass through the neutral zone to a streaking Connor McDavid, speeding into the offensive zone and backhanded a puck past American goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to give Canada an early lead.
But five minutes after Canada took the lead, the Americans tied the game with a goal by Jake Guentzal (that should've been stopped by goaltender Jordan Binnington.)
Binnington's play has been called into question: he didn't play well in Canada's overtime win against Sweden, and allowing that goal shortly after Canada took the lead was absolutely deflating.
For the remainder of the game, however, I felt Jordan Binnington played a great game for Canada and was not the reason that the team lost.
He only allowed two goals against an offensively gifted U.S. team, and if you told Canadian fans prior to the game that the USA would only score two goals on Binnington they would expect Canada to win this game.
Which brings us to Canada's biggest flaw in this game: their lack of scoring.
In the second and third periods, Canada couldn't generate any major scoring chances against the USA.
Credit is due to the American team on their commitment to team defence, as they were able to keep Canada's vaunted offence off the score sheet after the McDavid goal.
It seemed like every time Canada entered the offensive zone, the team couldn't complete a crisp pass to get an offensive chance. And when the team shot the puck from the blue line, it was always blocked and did not even reach the American net.
Then when Canada was able to get shots on goal, they were easy seeing-eye shots for Hellebuyck to save.
The job of scoring was hard; it became even harder when the Americans scored to make the game 2-1 off of a bad change by Team Canada (and a bad offensive zone turnover by Sidney Crosby of all people!)
After the USA took the lead, the game became endlessly frustrating to watch. Canada just could - not - create any good offensive chances that seemed dangerous.
The entire third period went by so fast as the USA just kept draining the clock. As time wound down, Canada pulled their goalie and the USA scored an empty net goal.
With this win, USA has now locked down a spot in the Four Nations Final. But Canada is by no means out of this event, they can still win tournament.
What Canada needs to do is beat Finland on Monday afternoon (tomorrow, Feb. 17) in regulation - or win in overtime/shootout and hope that Sweden loses their final game in regulation.
A regulation win tomorrow Monday should be the goal. You don't want to leave anything up to chance in a tournament as close as this one.
Canada controls their own destiny against Finland, and to win that game, they must ensure they don't take the Finnish team lightly.
Finland came into this tournament as the heavy underdog and shocked fans yesterday with their win over Sweden. If Canada takes Finland lightly, they will lose this game too.
But if they find a way to break through on offence and score big goals when needed, Canada can beat Finland and get their chance at a rematch against the USA in the championship game in Boston.
How sweet would it be to beat the U.S. on their home ice? For that, we'll first have to wait and see if Canada can get to the finals.
