The 4 Nations Face-Off starts next Wednesday, February 12, and the final game will be played February 20. This should be some of the most exciting hockey to ever grace the face of the Earth. Each team, Canada, United States of America, Sweden, and Finland, are rostering some of the most impressive talent in the game. This level of hockey is a win for every fan, no matter where you’re from!
Here’s the American roster and how they might line up come their opening game against Finland on February 13.
Forwards
| Brady Tkachuk | Auston Matthews | Matthew Tkachuk |
| Kyle Connor | Jack Eichel | J.T. Miller |
| Jake Guentzel | Jack Hughes | Matt Boldy |
| Chris Kreider | Dylan Larkin | Vincent Trocheck |
| Brock Nelson |
Almost any way this forward corps lines up they are incredible. The only problem with this lineup is the dearth of right shots. If you can believe it, only Jack Eichel and Vincent Trochek shoot right in this plethora of hockey titans. Eichel has always been a centre and while he could be placed on the wing to alleviate the left-shooting right wingers problem, it seems unlikely. Most of the right wingers above have at least some experience playing their off wing.
While the wingers could be paired differently, it’s likely that the Tkachuk brothers, Matthew and Brady, play together in order to take advantage of a life-time of building chemistry together. The Tkachuk brothers, bulldogs both of them, on a line with Auston Matthews seems like a perfect fit, he can fire home the puck after they retrieve it from the corner.
As for the rest of the lineup, there’s really no wrong answer as to how they organize themselves—almost every player on the roster is a play-maker and more than capable goal-scorer. Brock Nelson is the 13th forward here but he is a threat if he does get slotted in.
Defence
| Quinn Hughes | Charlie McAvoy |
| Zach Werenski | Adam Fox |
| Noah Hanifin | Brock Faber |
| Jaccob Slavin |
Another outstanding set of hockey players. Like the forwards, there are a lot of possibilities that work here, but unlike the forwards, there are four left shots and three right shots so they can be firing that puck around with ease on the blue line.
Quinn Hughes, who is a bigger offensive threat than most forwards in the show, should pair well with Charles McAvoy, who is known to be a steady defender. Zach Werenski is having the best season of his career by far, currently has the third best odds to win the Norris, and is keeping pace with Cale Makar and Hughes in points. Adam Fox, who has excellent relative on-ice numbers would work well with him. Lastly are Noah Hanifin and Brock Faber, both offensively capable and defensively responsible.
Jaccob Slavin could easily play a far bigger role than the seventh d-man and on any pairing. He is one of the most under-rated defenceman in the league. He is defensively excellent while often putting up close to 40 points with essentially no power play time.
Goalies
| Connor Hellebuyck |
| Jake Oettinger |
| Jeremy Swayman |
This is the not-so-secret weapon for team U.S.A. It isn’t just that they have the best goalie in the league right now, having a spectacular season, as well as two other top goalies, it’s also that the other three teams are definitely weaker than they have been in the past.
Canada finds themselves without a dominant NHL goalie for the first time possibly ever. The main point of contention when talking with friends, family, and assorted strangers (as one does), about Team Canada has been the goaltending. In past years there has been very little question about who should take the brunt of the goaltending. Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill, and Sam Montembeault are solid goalies, but just are not the tier that Canada is used to seeing in net.
Finland has rostered Kevin Lankinen, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, and Juuse Saros. They are again, solid goalies but none of them are putting up outstanding numbers this year. Saros is probably the go-to but Lankinen is putting up slightly better numbers so far this year.
Sweden is probably second best in goaltending, initially looking strong with Jacob Markstrom, Filip Gustavsson, and Linus Ullmark, but Markstrom was replaced with Samuel Ersson due to injury. Even with losing Markstrom, Sweden is looking good as Gustavsson and Ullmark are having very good years. So Sweden will suffer the goaltending discrepancy far less than Canada and Finland, but they are still not on a level with the U.S.
The average SV% of Team U.S.A. is .911, Sweden is .907, Finland .901, and Canada is .899. This is the biggest advantage that the U.S. holds.
Some notable snubs
Here is a list of some of the more head-scratching decisions the U.S. GM Bill Guerin made when crafting his team, ranked by points, also listed is where their point total ranks them in the NHL.
| Name | Goals | Assists | Points | Rank |
| Clayton Keller | 18 | 38 | 56 | 22 |
| Jason Robertson | 19 | 31 | 50 | 34 |
| Tage Thompson | 26 | 22 | 48 | 39 |
| Cole Caufield | 25 | 22 | 47 | 43 |
| Alex Debrincat | 23 | 19 | 42 | 61 |
Some other non-forward players who would have been exciting to watch are Lane Hutson, Jakob Chychrun, Jake Sanderson, and John Carlson and in goal: Joey Daccord, Dustin Wolf, and John Gibson.
There are no weak spots on this team, they are an absolute powerhouse front to back and should reasonably be considered the favourites to win this tournament. While Canada is obviously an outstanding team their weakness in goal is the U.S. strength. Any way you slice it though, this will be some great hockey to watch!
Follow The Oil Rig on social media!
Photo from @NHL on Twitter
