Canada has revealed the first six players in its squad for the 4 Nations Showdown and three players are from Nova Scotia, including Sidney Crosby.
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With him, he will have Nathan MacKinnon and Brad Marchand. The three players grew up in the suburbs of Halifax.
“I’m happy to see that Marchie and Nate are here, we can be proud of that,” Crosby said during a videoconference Friday. It’s fun to play together and I know that we will especially push each other because we are very competitive.
Has Sid already started pushing for Canada head coach Jon Cooper to create an all-Nova Scotia line?
“No, I’ll let the coaches juggle the lines.”
You talent
At almost 37 years old, Crosby had the opportunity to represent Canada a few times, but with the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a long break.
“Anytime you get to represent Canada against the best players in the world, you want to be at your best, take advantage of that opportunity, especially because we haven’t been able to do that in a long time so we appreciate it even more,” he emphasizes.
In addition to the three Nova Scotians, Canada also revealed the names of forwards Connor McDavid and Brayden Point, as well as that of defenseman Cale Makar.
“There is a lot of talent and fans have every reason to be excited. I’m especially looking forward to playing with Cale, I play against him and I see how he plays and how he skates, I saw him at the all-star game, he’s one of the first names that comes to mind. »
No goalkeeper has been revealed and there will be a change of guard since it is Carey Price who has been Canada’s right-hand man for over ten years.
Format
The format of this tournament, which brings together Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden, is not unanimous. We obviously deplore the absence of the Czechia, which won the last World Championship and of Switzerland which was the finalist. Russia is also absent for well-known reasons.
“Ideally there would be other countries, but we still have the opportunity to have very good players,” Crosby said.
For some, it is an exhibition series which will be presented in high season, next February.
“For the players, as it is just before the Olympic Games, it is certain that the product will be good because it will be very competitive. From the fans’ point of view, the level of play is incomparable, you can’t have a better product than that.”
The hat trick
Crosby mentioned, the tournament will be played one year before the Olympic Games in Milan Cortina, the opportunity will be great to start the work.
“It will be good preparation to see how the group interacts and what the possible trios are. I am sure that the other countries will take advantage of this tournament to understand their group and we will have the opportunity to better understand the competition.
Speaking of the Olympics, Crosby already has two gold medals at home. He scored the winning goal in overtime in the final in Vancouver in 2010 and won gold a second time in Sochi four years later. Is he aiming for the hat trick of gold medals?
“It won’t be for a while yet,” he simply replied.
