Canada has announced its first six players for the Four Nations Showdown, and three players are from Nova Scotia, including Sidney Crosby.
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With him, there will be Nathan MacKinnon and Brad Marchand. All three players grew up in the suburbs of Halifax.
“I’m glad to see Marchie and Nate here, we can be proud of them,” Crosby said in a video conference call Friday. “It’s fun to play together and I know we’re going to push each other because we’re very competitive.”
Has Sid already started pushing for Canada’s 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.
“Any time you can 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 it in a long time, so we appreciate it even more,” he said.
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’s a lot of talent and the fans have every reason to be excited. I’m especially excited to play 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 goalie has been announced and there will be a changing of the guard since it is Carey Price who has been Canada’s trusted man for more than ten years.
Format
The format of this tournament, which brings together Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden, is not unanimous. Obviously, we deplore the absence of the Czech Republic, which won the last World Championship, and Switzerland, which was the finalist. Russia is also absent for the reasons we know.
“Ideally there would be other countries, but we still have the opportunity to have very good players,” Crosby said.
For some, it is a series of exhibitions that will be presented in full season, next February.
“For the players, since it’s right before the Olympics, it’s sure 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 that the tournament will be played one year before the Milan Cortina Olympics. It will be a good opportunity to start the work.
“It will be a 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 overtime winner in the 2010 final in Vancouver and won gold a second time in Sochi four years later. Is he aiming for a gold medal hat trick?
“It won’t be for a while yet,” he simply replied.
