The Current - World’s top hockey teams battle it out at 4 Nations

Episode Date: February 17, 2025

Tensions are high as Canada, the U.S., Finland and Sweden battle for supremacy at the star-studded 4 Nations Face-Off. Arpon Basu, editor-in-chief of the Athletic Montreal, says this best-on-best hockey exceeded his expectations and is a significant moment for Canadian pride. Today, Canada hits the ice with hopes of securing a spot in Thursday's championship game. 

When a body is discovered 10 miles out to sea, it sparks a mind-blowing police investigation. There's a man living in this address in the name of a deceased. He's one of the most wanted men in the world. This isn't really happening. Officers are finding large sums of money. It's a tale of murder, skullduggery and international intrigue. So who really is he? I'm Sam Mullins and this is Sea of Lies from CBC's Uncovered, available now.

This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, it's Matt here. Thanks for listening to The Current wherever you're getting this podcast. Before we get to today's show, wonder if I might ask a favor of you if you could hit the follow button on whatever app you're using. There is a lot of news that's out there these days. We're trying to help you make sense of it all and give you a bit of a break from some

of that news too. So if you already follow the program, thank you. And if you have done that, maybe you could leave us a rating or review as well. The whole point of this is to let more listeners find our show and perhaps find some of that information that's so important in these really tricky times. So thanks for all of that. Appreciate it. And on to today's show. The Kachuck brothers are on the ice flanking Jack Eichel and John Cooper.

Look out. They're going to drop the blubs right away. Matthew Kachuck and Brandon Hagel. Right off the hop. Right off the hop. Indeed, it was a rough start on Saturday's game. Matthew Kachuk and Brandon Hagel. Right off the hop. Right off the hop. Indeed, it was a rough start on Saturday's

game between Canada and the United States. Three fights within the first nine seconds. Then as we say, a hockey game broke out. The United States beat Canada three to one, secured a spot in the final. So the four nations tournament. But there is more hockey to come. If Canada can beat Finland in the final round, Robin match today, then this

Thursday will be a winner takes all rematch between Canada and the United States. That if it happens will be something given what happened on Saturday. Arpin Basu is a senior columnist with the athletics, Montreal bureau. He's been covering the games there in March at Montreal. Arpin, good morning. Good morning. What was that about the games there in Montreal, Arpin, good morning. Good morning. What was that about? Three fights in nine seconds.

Can you help me understand that? Well, I think a lot of people are reading a lot into that. You know, there's obviously been the booing of the star spangled banner. There was in Montreal at least. We'll see what happens here in Boston with the, with O Canada, but it was really a case

of the United States, you know, three of their players were texting that day and Canada had won 16 straight best on best games against any opponent, but the Americans are included in that. And so they kind of had a group chat and they decided over the course of the day that they were going to fight right off the bat. So that's the two Kachak brothers and JT Miller. And so that was their way of saying, you know, your time is over, it's our time now. Made for great theater, definitely got some more eyeballs on the game. So if that was their intent, well done. But I think it was just their way of showing that they're ready to beat sort of the big bad bully, which has been Canada for 15 years now.

So this was not geopolitics entering the hockey realm? I don't think he's that sophisticated, to be honest, man. I'm gonna be straight with you. What did you make, I mean, it wasn't just the fighting. You talked about the anthems and Star Spangled Banner is booed, but then Oh Canada, I mean, I know some people

who were there at that game, and they said, as the crowd is singing O Canada, in their words, was unbelievable. It was, and you gotta remember the context of this. I mean, I've covered games at the Bell Center where, in Montreal, where the O Canada was booed. You know, at certain times of our political history, O'Canada was not met with warmth, let's say, from a Montreal crowd. So to have that happen, to have it sung in

French at that volume was heartwarming, frankly. It was powerful. And so, yeah, obviously that's fueled by some of the anti yeah, obviously that's fueled by some of the anti-American sentiment that's happening because of obviously some of Trump's comments regarding Canada and him basically mocking the country. So I think, you know, but you know, I think the weight of the game and not having had international competition for a long time also played into that, but it was quite a moment. I've covered some really touching moments in that building,

and that one was up there. What is this tournament? Can you just explain what it is? I mean, the Four Nations Tournament, what is it? Well, it is essentially NHL players have long wanted a place, an ability to play best on best hockey. So I have the best players in the world face off and represent their countries. Now, the NHL has been at odds with the International Olympic Committee

for many years over a myriad of things, but that's kept them out of the Olympics since 2014. And right now, so they've collectively bargained to have these best on best competitions, but because of the situation with Russia, they're banned from international competition, wouldn't have prevented the NHL from including Russia, but they chose not to, so that made it complicated. So they kind of made up this tournament with these four countries, who are four of the, I'd say, five top hockey playing countries in the world, and made this tournament so that the players could have their best-on-best forum, and frankly, the players have proven themselves right. They care about this tournament. They're giving it everything, as you saw

at the start of that US-Canada game. And it's provided great entertainment and great theater. Is it actually the best on best? Alex Ovechkin, certainly one of the best, if not, I mean, there's an argument that he could be in that frame of the best, is not there. He was asked if he's gonna watch it. And he said, what's the point of watching something

where the Russian team doesn't participate? Yeah, I mean, he's not wrong and it's not best on best. There are several Russian players. I mean, Nikita Kucherov is a leading candidate to be the MVP this year. And so, but there was no easy solution to this. I think they did what they could. They couldn't include Russia in a tournament when they have been banned from basically

every international competition in any sport anywhere, as long as they continue this war in Ukraine. So I think they had to find a compromise. This is what they came up with. It's not best on best. It's not perfect. But I think the tournament's been a lot better than a lot of people thought it would be because I think Russia's absence

and many of the best players, you know, Leon Dreisle is German. He's one of the best players in the world. There are several top players. David Pasternak is another great one who plays here in Boston. He's Czech. He's not at this tournament. But the tournament being what it is has been a very entertaining product. So you can call it something other than best on best, but it's the closest thing to best on best we've had since 2016 when the NHL held a World Cup tournament that was similar to this. On Saturday after the game you tweeted, I hope that the people who thought this event would suck feel some shame tonight. Suggest that perhaps it's living up to your expectations and then some? I think I'd succeeded my expectations, frankly. I thought it was going to be great. Listen,

I was at the 2016 World Cup. I was at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi and both were incredible to watch the most talented players in the world care about a competition against each other. I wasn't sure the level of care that we would have in this tournament. But Team Canada coach John Cooper said it after the game against the Americans. I mean the one thing he came away with after that game is that his team cares and that makes his job as a coach easy when your team is engaged and your team cares. That provides good entertainment for us. It provides good competition for the players and the league and the Players Association who are both organizing this and the viewers are the ultimate winners in my opinion. I mean, I think it's been, and listen, this has had tremendous ratings, north and south

of the border. The fans are into it, the players are into it. It's really been a tremendous success. I think it's been better than they could have even hoped for. How good is Team Canada? One of the reasons why people, viewers cared to watch this is because they get to see Conor McDavid, Sidney Crosby and Nathan McKinnon play together in one unit in some ways. How good is Team Canada?

I mean, they're excellent, obviously, but they're not head and shoulders above USA. And frankly, I think they're going to have a tough game against Finland this afternoon. You know, that's a winner take all in a sense that the winner goes to the final and the loser goes home. It's not I don't anticipate that being a blowout. So but in terms of comparison, the Americans, this is a new era. You know, a lot of the best players in the league are American. The best goaltenders in the league are definitely American. And so the interesting dynamic for me with Canada

and you saw it play out against Americans is that you know the previous golden generation there are three players on this team who played and won gold in Sochi and that's Sidney Crosby, Drew Doughty and Brad Marshan and they're both on the wrong end of 35 and and you kind of saw it in that game. That game seemed a little too quick for them. Now I should say Sidney Crosby is playing injured. It's not clear what it is, but it's definitely to an arm. So he's basically playing with one arm. So that's got to be kept under consideration. But those three guys, there's a real changing of the guard because the American team doesn't have players of that era

on their team. And so if they have a rematch on Thursday, I'm going to be interested to see how some of those golden players are used and how effective they can be. I don't want to bring this back to politics, but is there an element of Canadian pride here, just in what you said, which is that some of the best players come from the United States. For a long time, the narrative was that this was our game. We owned this game. That has not been the case for some time. And now when you have the U.S.

as the favorite in this tournament with some star players on its roster, um, what does that mean for how people think of Canadian hockey? Well, it's gonna, it's, it's one thing I can guarantee is that people are going to overreact to whatever happens. So that's, that's one to, it's, it's one thing I can guarantee is that people are going to overreact to whatever happens. But that's, that's one thing, but I think. So if we win, it'll be a big deal. And if we lose, there'll be a public inquiry or something like that. Yeah, well, all the, all the big, you know, thinkers of the game will come together and

come up with some solution for what's wrong with Canadian hockey. Nothing's wrong with Canadian hockey. Canada could have put together three teams to enter this tournament and they would have all finished in the top four probably. So it's great that Canada has competition. I think it was great for Pride when Canada was just steamrolling everyone, but for the health of the game, having other teams compete with Canada on a regular basis would be the best thing.

And frankly, having more than four nations that you could fill rosters full of NHL players with would also be good for the game. And we're getting there. That's a big reason why other countries aren't at this tournament is that they didn't have enough NHL players to put together competitive teams. So Canada, we associate our identity to the game of hockey. And I don't think that changes if Canada loses today or Thursday It is still our game. We still have by far the most players. We have the most good players We have the most excellent players But it's it's we should take pride in the fact that more countries Like hockey enough to be good at it and that's thanks to Canada

That's thanks to us promoting the game, building the game, and developing the game so that it goes even more global than it has at any time previously. And that should be a source of pride for Canadians. That's like a state of the game address for me. Flag kind of fluttering in the background. You're just saying it.

I don't like how we get all, you know, we start like, I don't know. I don't even know what the word is offended, insulted, like when the Canadian hockey team loses, the fact that all these other countries are good, we should be proud of that. I mean, it is our game and the fact that they're good is in large part due to us loving the game. You're specking a good game today?

Yeah. I think it's going to be a very tight checking competitive game. Finland, I've been covering going to be a very tight checking competitive game. Finland, I've been covering that Finland's been my primary beat in this tournament and they have a long history of bucking odds and just being underdogs and winning. Listen, four of the five Olympics where NHL

players have been involved, Finland has won a medal. They're a country of 5.5 million people. They take enormous pride in their hockey team Perhaps I would say it it it rivals Canadian pride in our hockey team. So it's it's gonna be a very competitive game It's very important. There's a ton of Finnish media here to cover it. It's it's a big deal there And I think you're gonna see that on the ice this afternoon. I know you're working but enjoy it as well Arpin Thanks. It's good to talk to you.

All right. Thank you. Arpin Basu is a senior writer of the Athletic Montreal. Today Canada takes on Finland, looking for a place in the final of the Four Nations Hockey Tournament.