The launch of the 4 Nations Showdown is just around the corner. The first edition of the tournament organized by the NHL, which will see Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden compete, will take place from February 12 to 20.
Remember that the Canadian would have three representatives while Samuel Montembeault will wear the colors of Canada and Patrik Laine and Joel Armia will represent Finland.
Chris Johnston recently questioned in an article on The Athletic which players would make the best candidates for replacement in the event of injuries.
The journalist chose a player respectively in attack, defense and in goal for each of the four teams participating in the competition.
Result: no CH player is part of its reserve team.
I will leave you with the leisure to read the article in full, but I want to focus here on certain choices where CH players could have made the cut.
First up, Mark Scheifele as forward for Canada.
Do I take Nick Suzuki (43 points in 42 games) before Scheifele (50 points in 44 games)? Probably not, but I also don’t take Anthony Cirelli and Seth Jarvis over Scheifele, so that’s more the issue.
And maybe it’s my partisan view, but I also choose Suzuki before these two.
For the Americans, Johnston chose Jason Robertson as attacker.
Here I choose Cole Caufield (40 points, including 23 goals in 42 games) over Robertson (35 points in 42 games) without hesitation, if only for Caufield’s elite sniper skills.
He’s the type of player you want on the ice when you need a goal.
In terms of the American defense, the journalist chooses Capitals defender John Carlson.
Although Carlson (27 points in 43 games) has worse offensive statistics than Lane Hutson (32 points in 42 games), we can think that the former constitutes a better choice, notably due to defensive stability.
However, I would be interested to see Hutson, who is far from reaching his full potential, play with elite defenders.
If Hutson wasn’t actually in the conversation in November as a participant in the 4 Nations Showdown, I’m far from sure the situation would be the same if the selection took place now.
Of course, this is all a very speculative exercise, but I think it’s still a little frustrating to see the Canadiens players ignored.
In burst
– Victory of the Sens!
– Ovation for Fleury.
– Tie at half.
– Victory for the Canadian.
