The dynamic dream duos we want to see at the 4 Nations Face-Off
The 4 Nations Face-Off is finally the best-on-best tournament we’ve been craving. Less than one week away, we take a look at some dynamic duos we hope get to play together.
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It’s been way too long.
In the time since men’s hockey players last competed in a best-on-best tournament, France and Argentina both hoisted men’s soccer World Cup titles, Canada and the U.S. traded women’s hockey Olympic gold medals and Japan claimed its third World Baseball Classic championship in an epic duel between then-teammates Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout.
All the while, hockey fans had just one question: will Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid ever play together for Canada?
As of Wednesday, there will be an answer: finally.
No. 87 and No. 97 are slated to suit up with a Maple Leaf on their chest when Canada meets Sweden in the first game of the 4 Nations Face-Off at Montreal’s Bell Centre. That game, and every other throughout the tournament, will be available on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
As two of the team’s top centres, Crosby and McDavid won’t necessarily play together on the same line for 60 minutes. But the idea of the duo spending a shift or two together is tantalizing — even to McDavid.
“It’s getting harder and harder to not think about it,” the Edmonton Oilers captain recently told The Canadian Press.
Indeed, the potential for a Crosby-McDavid pairing is sky-high — could the duo produce Canada’s next Gretzky-to-Lemieux moment?
And can they establish any chemistry to carry over into the 2026 Olympics?
“This isn’t exactly the Olympics or a World Cup,” McDavid said of the 4 Nations. “(But) it’s a good teaser.”
With that in mind, here are four other duos we’re hoping share the ice in this mid-season competition:
Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon, Canada
Another one that writes itself as the Cole Harbour, N.S., boys finally get to play together.
In 2016, MacKinnon joined McDavid on the under-23 Team North America roster, robbing both of their first opportunity to play with the author of the golden goal.
And sure, Crosby and MacKinnon have shared a drive-thru — but here’s betting that if coach Jon Cooper put the two on a line together, they would simply just drive through opponents.
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Crosby is a hockey genius, always in the right spot at the right time and more than skilled enough to take advantage of those opportunities. MacKinnon’s more of a battering ram, and his rare combination of size and speed allows him to be wherever he wants on the ice, whenever he wants.
Cooper could complete the line with pretty much any forward on the roster — Brad Marchand has experience next to Crosby, Mitch Marner could play facilitator, or bump Crosby to the wing and create a super-line with McDavid in the middle.
It would also be fascinating to see how Crosby and MacKinnon react to lining up next to each other. The 2008 U.S. men’s basketball ‘Redeem Team’ was famously a precursor to LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh’s linkup in Miami two years later.
Could Crosby and MacKinnon get any ideas?
Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, U.S.
Does anyone not want to see this?
The Tkachuk bros are two of the biggest dawgs in the league and have seemingly perfected the art of bothering opponents equally with skill and physicality.
Strategically, it may make more sense to split them up and spread their jam throughout the lineup.
But it’s also hard to imagine a better duo when a team needs a spark, one that could create offensive zone momentum or draw a key penalty while also providing a scoring threat.
And if you’re head coach Mike Sullivan, at least getting a taste of the two Tkachuks together ahead of the Olympics seems worthwhile.
It’s also difficult to say which centre wouldn’t work between them — they could be diggers for Auston Matthews, join Jack Eichel on a puck-hound line or even lock things down defensively around Brock Nelson.
Side note: the Tkachuks, of course, aren’t the only brothers on the U.S. team. Jack and Quinn Hughes play different positions, but here’s betting they’d relish the chance to play together too — and a Hughes-to-Hughes power-play strike certainly seems within the realm of possibility.
Mikko Rantanen and Sebastian Aho, Finland
Three weeks ago, this would have seemed somewhat intriguing but kind of random.
Now, the newly minted Carolina Hurricanes teammates are already starting to build chemistry — will it carry over into international play? And if so, how much does any success with the Finnish national team translate back to the NHL playoff push?
So far, Rantanen and Aho don’t seem to be immediately clicking — they’ve combined for two goals and one assist in four games together.
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But the idea still works in theory — Rantanen thrived for years alongside MacKinnon in Colorado, and Aho offers many of the same strengths as a powerful, skilled point producer.
On the flip side, if they continue to struggle together, Teuvo Teravainen lingers as another linemate with proof-of-concept alongside Aho from their days together in Carolina.
William Nylander and Elias Pettersson, Sweden
Sometimes, you just have to put two skilled players together and let the magic happen.
There admittedly isn’t a ton of logic to pairing Nylander and Pettersson beyond that — though the fact that the Canucks star is a lefty while the Leafs winger is a righty does help.
At their best, Nylander and Pettersson are arguably Sweden’s top offensive threats, with apologies to Mika Zibanejad and Jesper Bratt.
And a team whose centre depth is relatively weak might need to force offence at times and may decide that a top-heavy approach is the right one.
Also, Nylander and Pettersson have both, at times, had their effort level questioned. With the Tre Kronor on their chest, will they rise to the occasion or limp quietly back to their Canadian NHL clubs?
The range of outcomes is what makes this duo so appealing — for a neutral observer, at least.
