Connor McDavid punches Canada’s ticket to 4 Nations final
When it comes to Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby says “whether it’s with his play or his words, he’s there to lead.” The Oilers star did just that when Canada needed it most on Monday at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
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BOSTON — After a devastating loss to Team USA on Saturday, Connor McDavid said this thing was far from over for Canada.
On Monday, he guaranteed it, playing the leading role in Canada punching its ticket to Thursday’s 4 Nations Face-Off championship game with the type of performance only the country’s best player would be poised to deliver.
It was do or die against Finland, and McDavid shot first to ensure survival. He hit his target, intercepting Roope Hintz’s exit attempt on his way to scoring unassisted 4:13 into the game.
One of several titillating rushes McDavid took through the first 15 minutes led to Brayden Point’s goal to make it 3-0 and capped a tone-setting period that helped take most the stress out of the game for the Canadians.
In between — and after — Point’s goal, McDavid’s only challenger for top Canadian (Nathan MacKinnon) scored two of his own, with the second one standing as the winner in this 5-3 outcome that dispatched Finland from the tournament.
But big No. 29 was riding shotgun to big No. 97, who came up huge when it mattered most.
McDavid virtually tapped the maple tree to suck out Canada’s hockey identity.
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Devon Toews said prior to the game we hadn’t quite seen it in the tournament-opening win over the Swedes, and he conceded at least part of the reason it was absent in the bruising loss to the Americans was defence partner Cale Makar’s unavailability due to illness.
“He’s the best defenceman in the world, so that’s quite an impact on any given night,” Toews said.
On Monday afternoon, Makar, “a huge driver of the puck from the back end,” as Toews labelled him, returned and immediately did what was expected of him.
In front of Makar, the Canadians played their way —hard, fast, and true north instead of east-west — with Brad Marchand saying afterward they “did a good job taking care of the puck.”
Behind Makar, Jordan Binnington began erasing any doubt he was up to backstopping Canada to a win when he opened the game by stopping Mikael Granlund’s dangerous shot through Colton Parayko’s legs before pushing aside Mikko Rantanen’s tip from 18 feet out. He stood tall for most of the afternoon, except for when he scrambled along the ice to make brilliant stops on three consecutive shots from 11 feet or less on Finland’s power play late in the second period.
Three goals from the Finns late in the third didn’t detract from Binnington’s 25-save performance. And they were ultimately rendered irrelevant by McDavid’s early-game heroics to help give the Canadians a lead they’d never relinquish.
“I think we know he’s a special player,” Canada’s assistant general manager, Jim Nill, told Sportsnet after the game. “I think we know how skilled he is, but people forget how competitive he is. There’s a lot of adversity over these last few days, but he loves these situations.”
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McDavid bottled his frustration from the loss to USA and channelled it the right way from start to finish Monday.
No player had the puck on their stick more than he did in the offensive zone (48 seconds, according to SportLogiq). And for as good as he was there, he was also dominant on the other parts of the ice — registering the most controlled zone exits for either team (11) and owning the neutral zone with the speed and skill that defines his game.
The way McDavid used those assets to score the game’s first goal was described by MacKinnon as “the best player in the league” making “an unreal play.”
Canada coach Jon Cooper saw McDavid holding the puck and reloading with it before uncorking it off the post and in as the type of play the Oilers star needed to make for his team to win this game.
“I was talking to Connor like, ‘Somebody’s got to shoot in the net, so why not you?’,” he said.
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4 Nations Face-Off on Sportsnet
The inaugural edition of the 4 Nations Face-Off is here with the top players from Canada, Sweden, Finland and the United States going head-to-head in the highly anticipated best-on-best event. Watch all the games on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
Canada captain Sidney Crosby knew McDavid would be the guy to do that.
“Obviously today, a big game like this, to come out the way he did,” Crosby started, “he’s vocal sometimes as well, but he understands he’s a guy that we all look to. Whether it’s with his play or his words, he’s there to lead.”
Crosby was, too, ending Finland’s late surge by absorbing a hit from Granlund and steadying himself to shoot the puck into the empty net for the insurance marker with 56 seconds to go.
“He’s a true inspiration to all the young guys in our locker room, and even older guys,” said Cooper. “In our country, he walks on water.”
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What Crosby has done on the ice — playing through hard checks against Sweden, USA and Finland with an upper-body injury — has been nothing short of miraculous. Canada’s most decorated and experienced player added an assist on MacKinnon’s game-winner to take the tournament lead in points (fuve).
His, McDavid’s and MacKinnon’s contributions went well beyond the stat sheet in all the games, but especially in this one.
“I thought we played extremely well,” said Cooper. “The way we managed the puck, you get the best players in the world doing things they’re probably not accustomed to and all for the benefit of our team winning hockey games. It’s a 200-foot game, you’ve got McDavid, MacKinnon, Crosby and all these guys dumping pucks and going to get them. It was the way we needed to play to win this game, and we did it.”
It gave us the rematch McDavid was confident we’d have come Thursday.
He wasn’t available to comment on what we’ll see between Canada and USA then, but MacKinnon didn’t shy away from saying his side would be up to the task.
“We’d love to play them again,” he said. “We feel like we could beat those guys, and we plan on playing a little better Thursday.”
McDavid put Canada in position to do it following Saturday’s disappointment, and the potential for him to make the difference was only confirmed in Monday’s game.
