This NHL season we are treated to a round robin tournament with Canada, Sweden, Finland, and the United States of America showcasing most of the top talent in the NHL.
Montreal hosted the first game of the 4 Nations Face-Off 2025 tournament last night, and it was the perfect game for Canadiens in attendance, those at a Pub, or at home glued to their screens.
An amazing line consisting of three Centers, McDavid, Crosby, and MacKinnon opened the scoring as Team Canada took the early 1-0 lead, increased it to 2-0 before Sweden found some offense to score their first tally of the tournament.
Statistically Sweden endeavored to keep pace with Team Canada, but Canada blocked 10 more shots, scored the lone powerplay goal, earned a slight advantage in face-offs, and of course scored in overtime.
The officials allowed the players to play as there was only two high-sticking penalties, one assessed to each team.
After the second period down 3-1 Team Sweden made this game interesting as they scored twice in the third period to tie the game forcing overtime affording Canada’s RW Marner to receive a pass, skate in and score the game winner.
The white elephant in the rink is no Team Russia, thankfully POTUS Trump recently was on the phone with presidents Putin and Zelenskyy arranging an end to their war providing an opportunity for the 2028 World Cup Tournament to have Russia participate.
Buffalo Winter 