The Hockey PDOcast - Four Nations Storylines We're Excited About

Episode Date: February 11, 2025

Dimitri Filipovic is joined by Steve Peters to help get you ready for the upcoming Four Nations event by discussing expectations for the games, things they're excited to watch, and examples from the last time we saw best on best hockey like this that could be instructive. If you'd like to gain access to the two extra shows we're doing each week this season, you can subscribe to our Patreon page here: www.patreon.com/thehockeypdocast/membership If you'd like to participate in the conversation and join the community we're building over on Discord, you can do so by signing up for the Hockey PDOcast's server here: https://discord.gg/a2QGRpJc84 The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

2015. It's the Hockey PEDEOCast with your host, Dmitri Filippovich. Welcome to the HockeyPediocast. My name is Dimitra Filippovich. And joining me is my good buddy, Steve Peters. Pidi, what's going on in? You know, it's another day without hockey. And I'm not used to it yet. So we're going to have to get these games going on on Wednesday. Yeah, I was telling you before we went on air. I already feel like a man lost at sea after one day of no NHL hockey. A couple weeks ago, I was thinking to myself, like, oh, it'll be nice to have a bit of a break. I think there's only going to be seven games total over a span of like 12 days here for the Four Nations tournament. And so

there's going to be a bunch of nights off. And I was like, you know what? I'll get to live a normal life of someone who isn't glued to their couch the entire evening every single night from essentially October to June. So, of course, night I'm like, all right, well, let's see what this is all about. I go watch a movie, I'm going to dinner, like, all this stuff. And then I'm like, at the the end of night, I'm like, man, I wish there was a game on. And that's night one of that. So I'm, I'm curious to see what a night seven or eight is going to look like. But thankfully, as you said, we do have some Four Nations games starting on Wednesday. And I thought it'd be fun for us today to talk all about it, to get people hyped and ready for it. We're going to talk about some of our expectations for it, maybe predictions, things we're interested to watch, storylines, all that sort of stuff. I'll give you the floor here. What do you think is the most interesting sort of angle to, this or thing you're most excited about or most curious about? It's always what's going to win these games. Is it going to be offense or is it going to be defense?

And when you get into tournaments like this, everybody's got that high-end skill. It's who's got that skill that's deeper, but who can defend? Because you go through these rosters and you start looking at, gosh, how many these guys, how many these guys spend a lot of time in their defensive zone? How many these guys spend time penalty killing? And I think the rosters that are more geared to that, that have guys that, yeah, these guys can defend and these guys can kill penalties. I think those are the ones are prime for success in such a short tournament.

I think so too. And I think that's what we saw from Team Canada's roster building. Now I think it's very easy to do so when, especially at the forward group, though some of those options are like guys like Seth Jarvis and Anthony Sorrelli and Brennan Hagel and even Travis Keneckney. It's like, all right, these are sort of supplementary players that are going to play specific roles and maybe just like very refined versions of what they already do for their NHL clubs, they obviously are capable of so much more.

But if you're just using them for stuff like that, it's quite a nice luxury. I think it's weird because it's been so long now since we've seen any tournament resembling this and kind of quote unquote best on best hockey, right? So you have to kind of think back so many years ago. But we've generally seen especially Team Canada winning these tournaments and having the success they had, whether it's the World Cup of hockey in 2016 or, the Olympics in 2014, a lot of it was built on this foundation of just being a buzz saw defensively, right? You'd never have the puck against them. They just limited you to so much. And that's kind of

how they won these games. And so I imagine we're going to see that as well. Now, the issue for that is especially up against Team USA, it feels like they can go punch for punch and do exactly that with as much speed and talent throughout the lineup as you. So it's a bit of a different ring. Yeah, it's interesting. You're right, though. How much, how much offensive and defensemen are going to play a role in this tournament. And I think it's different than what you've seen in the last time they played best on best, or even the last Olympics. I know you had the guys that could get the puck up the ice.

You had those one or two guys. But now it looks like it's a group of four or five defensemen in USA and Canada that can move the puck extremely well. So I think this is going to be a new era of international hockey in that you're going to see so much more offense coming from the back end. Here's a few questions I have for you. And I'm curious because you have the experience from the last time we saw something like this, the 2016 World Cup being the video guy for that fabled Team North America.

And I honestly want to just while we're here, since we have so much runaway, so little actual hockey to react to and talk about. We can have some fun with it and blow it out. I want to hear some stories from you from that experience and kind of what that was like and just being around that team in particular because that's one that's very near and dear to my heart. and I'm sure many of our listeners in 2020 during the pandemic, I went back because there was no hockey going on kind of like right now. And I went back and I just fully rewatched that game against Sweden, in particular, the classic with the Nathan McKinnon, overtime winner. And I, every once in a while, just go pull it up on YouTube

and just watch some of the highlights from that tournament. And it's remarkable to think that guys like McDavid, McKinnon, Matthews, and Eichel were all at the same time on that same team at this point of their careers and how special that was. what was that like and kind of projecting it ahead to this tournament obviously a different one eight or so years later but still kind of this sort of little time capsule

of all these guys kind of coming together and playing in a short tournament and then just going back to their NHL clubs it's funny because when they when when I got the call actually it was the coaches in Edmonton it was it was Todd McColl and Jay Woodcroft that said hey are you interested

and I said absolutely and I had to do a little tryout. I had to do some video work that I had to send them for preparation for this tournament. And when you saw the list of names, I mean, I think McDavid was the biggest name on that team at the time. And at that time, Austin Matthews hadn't played an NHL game yet. And the irony of Austin Matthews, when you look at when that team was assembled, he started off as the 13th forward at the first practice. And by the time the team played the first game, he was on the top line with McDavid. And I think the biggest challenge for that coaching staff for that team was trying to find units that could work together.

And we talked about defending. When you looked across the room, I remember Dave Tippett was the penalty kill coach. And it's like, what the hell are we going to do? We have 20 guys that play on the power play. We have nobody that kills penalties. And that was one of the biggest adjustments for that team was somebody's going to have to kill penalties. And J.T. Miller was on that team. And he was the guy that was going to kill penalties.

But then the question was asked, hey, who wants to kill penalties? And Dylan Larkin's like, buddy, I'm not going to play if I don't, if I don't kill some penalties. So I better kill penalties and be good at it. And so Dylan Larkin became a penalty killer. And I think the biggest thing for that team is what did they have? I think, you know, you're looking at Crosby across the table. And Pavel Datsuk was playing for the Russians and Ovechkin. And you go, this team's not good enough.

They're too young. They're going to be a little novelty. And then they hit the ice. And you're like, oh, my, this is something special. And I think hockey fans were robbed. And I know it's a little personal, but I think they were robbed. If Team North America beats Sweden, and I hate revisionist history, but they beat Sweden in overtime, if they win that in regulation,

there is a matchup on Saturday night, hockey night in Canada of McDavid versus Dini Crosby, Canada versus North America on Saturday in downtown Toronto. And I'm telling you, it would have been lights out one of the best hockey games that you'd have ever seen. And unfortunately, it just didn't happen. Yeah. That game is remarkable, as I said, time capsule to go back and look at,

just like right out of the gate, just throwing Haymakers at that team, Sweden team. And then them being this sort of like veteran group, right, with like the Cidines and Eric Carlson at the time and all this stuff. And just seeing sort of the back and forth, obviously, Henry Lundquist and that it's crazy to think that, what, next year or two October's around. It's going to be the 10-year anniversary of that. But even at the time, it's interesting hearing you talking. about sort of the growth within that tournament for certain young players, right? Whether it's Matthews working his way up the depth chart that quickly, or Larkin settling into a role so that he could contribute to the team.

At the time, it seems crazy to think now based on what he's done in the league of the past, whatever six, seven years at this point. But Nathan McKinnon was at a very different stage of his career at that point, too, right? He was playing on this struggling abs team after his rookie season. And he really took a big step back in terms of production. His shooting percentage was completely in the toilet for like three years there. They're able to get him on this very team-friendly extension off his ELC. And then that helps them set up the eventual Stanley Cup champion in 2022.

But he obviously a year after that takes off and becomes a superstar that we know now. But we could see it even in that tournament, right? That overtime winner that he scores against Lundquist. And what a big game player he was. And like the stuff he could do physically, it was all on full display. think that's what's exciting for this tournament too. We don't have a team as young as team North America, but especially even on these two Canadian and US rosters,

there's a lot of players that someone who maybe like you or I watches every single night and is keeping track of every team can appreciate, but maybe because of the market they play in or the fact they haven't been on a long playoff run with their NHL club yet, maybe people don't really appreciate what they're capable of in this type of tournament with the amount of eyeballs on it, I think is going to provide a platform for them to potentially level up, take their game to a next level in terms of recognition and also their own confidence, and then parlay that into a strong stretch run and heading into the playoffs.

And I think that's an incredibly exciting proposition. Yeah, and that's what's going to be interesting in such a short tournament. You just don't know who's going to be that guy. And when you look at the rosters on paper, first of all, all four teams have an outstanding play. players top to bottom, they're very good hockey teams. But which team's going to have that advantage? And when you look at teams, and I'll just say it, Canada and U.S., when you look at their teams, it's their depth and what they're able to do all the way down, all four lines.

Their goaltending, we'll talk about Canadians' goaltending a little bit later, I'm sure, but you look at the depth of Canada and the U.S., but you just don't know the style of play. The one thing about the Finns is they play a certain style and they know how to defend. And they defend as a group of five and you go through their roster, they've got some good offensive players, but they've got good all-around players. And is that going to be enough in such a short tournament with only just a few games? Is that going to be enough over 82 games, maybe over three?

I'm not so sure. I'd like to have the offensive powerhouse teams that can drive through and beat you 9-7. And I think that that's Canada in the U.S. It is. Do I want to go through a couple of the players that come to mind that could fit that bell for us here in terms of players who could elevate their game and we come out of it two weeks from now with an entirely different view of them nationally or an entirely different appreciation of what they're capable of and kind of the status that they hold within league circles? I've got I've got certainly one guy for Sweden that jumps to mind immediately. I've got one for Canada and U.S. as well.

I'm curious, I don't want to steal yours. So do you have any before I give you the guys that I'm referring to? Well, with the problem with this, and you say that, nobody's going to be surprised if Connor McDavid tears it up. Yes, I think that's expected. We're kind of going to see how great he is. I think it's the guys that are going to look at deeper in the lineup. And one of the guys that I really like for Sweden, and it's not fair because his numbers are great.

I got to see him a lot more because he plays in the West. And he's a guy that actually beat up. up the Arizona Coyotes when the Coyotes were here. But I think on an international stage, I think people are going to see how dynamic that Adrian Kempi is, how he can skate, how he can get to the net, how he plays what we talked about,

that prototypical 200-foot player. Adrian Kempi's a guy that a lot of people might not know because he's playing at 10 o'clock Eastern time and they might not get to see him. I think when you look at the forwards on that team, you know, Zabedad, you know,

you know, you know, Nylander. But I think Adrian Kempi's a guy that you're going to get to see and be a little bit surprised at how well this kid can play. Oh, well, PDO guest listeners know all about Adrian Kempai. I've been raving about what a rock star he is for a couple years now, but you're right. I think that's a good show.

Do you look at the numbers? Yes. You're a, you actually like back stuff up with facts. I don't. I'm just, I just look at it. So yours is very, very valid. He's a hell of hockey player. Well, and he's been the one guy, really, that has held up his end of the bargain the past

couple years in all of those round one defeats to the oilers, right? You'd watch it in the star level and offensive capability that the oilers are able to throw at the kings. And the kings, for the most part, just aren't able to keep up the one guy who has looked like he completely belongs in all those games is Adrian Kempay, because he's just flying up and down the ice and just shooting from everywhere and scoring a bunch of goals. And you're like, all right, this guy actually belongs in this setting. It's unfortunate that they don't have a lot of other guys that you could say the same about. The one guy for me for Team Sweden, that really comes to mind and I think he's become a trendy pick for this. I've been talking about it all year is Lucas

Raymond. He's really leveled up since the coaching change since the holiday break. He's got 26 points and 21 games. He's been playing phenomenally with Larkin and Marco Casper on that Red Wings top line. You look at how this lineup for Team Sweden projects and he's probably at least going to start playing with a guy like Jesper Brat at 5-1-5 and how dynamic he is and how they can attack off the rush. He's going to be on the first unit power play. And I think this is a really big stage for him to showcase what he's been doing for the Red Wings and what he's capable of. We haven't gotten to see him yet early in his career in that playoff setting. That might change this year if the Red Wings keep playing as well as they have heading into

this break. But he's so smooth and his ability as a playmaker to set other guys up and how lethal he is as a shooter in this type of setting where the game is sped up a little bit and there's just so much talent around you at all times. It feels like he's someone who is going to be able to step right in. and facilitate a lot of it and then take his game to another level just because he's benefiting

off of how much talent is around him. So I feel like he's someone who, when you watch these games, it's going to be like, oh my God, Lucas Raymond has arrived as a legitimate star in this league. Yeah, and you look at it, what's going to be interesting to me

across all four of these teams, specifically with Raymond, as he leads team Sweden and power play points up to this point in the regular season with 26, and you go, okay, how does that translate? And that's where I'm looking concerned

at all of these power plays, and you go, this guy's a power play goal score. You can go to each team and see a guy that, oh, yeah, he's a guy that produces on the powerplay. But the problem is they work in their own power play. They work in their power play where they're accustomed to players knowing where they're going to find them near the net or where they can see them on the ice. So I'm worried to see how that translate across all four teams. And you see Sam Reinhardt, you know, he's a bumper spot in Florida.

They know the puck's coming to him there. But will they have that same setup in Canada? Will they be able to get him the puck? I do think that the power play is going to be really interesting because Lucas Raymond, his skill level is off the charts and his ability to move the puck and his vision is outstanding. And his skill level is great, but I'm curious to see, are they going to be able to get him the puck enough

and in the right situations on the power play? Because I do think that the special teams are going to be a huge part of this tournament. All right, well, let's tie in our listeners here. We got a question in the PDO cast Discord from Puna asks, how do you go about putting together a power play in such a short period of time in a tournament like this? I think for your, you mentioned the example

of Reinhart and with Team Canada when you have a top unit that's Kail McCar on the point, McDavid and McKinnon in opposing flanks, Sydney Crosby kind of hovering around the goal line and then Sam Ryanhart in the bumper. There's such a diversity of skill set and obviously just an outrageous amount of talent

that I feel like it's going to be able to overcome a lot of the challenges that you're describing there because I believe that they're just going to find a way to figure it out. It might not be initially on the first power play opportunity, but as this termine goes along, they're eventually going to get humming, and I can't wait to watch how those five guys interact

in the offensive zone with that much space. But I think it's an interesting question because goals are going to be at a premium, especially for a team that's undermanned, relatively speaking, like Sweden or obviously Finland, manufacturing a couple extra goals in special teams is going to be huge because it might ultimately be the difference. And especially if you can get it early on in a game,

you're able to kind of play differently, defensively and hold on and rely on your goaltending. And so it opens potential doors for you to actually steal some of these games. What does that look like in a tournament like this in terms of trying to fast track that sort of level of chemistry that it takes? Because you look at a lot of the top power plays in the league, not just this year, but historically, and continuity is the first thing that comes to mind for me, right? It's just the level of reps and time spent together that a lot of these guys have been able to

kind of work all of this out, and you get to a point where the timing and precision is so on point that if you execute, the other team has one fewer player out there. They're not going to be able to cover anyone, and you're ultimately going to be able to get what you want. It's going to be tougher to do that and replicate that in this tournament because you're just putting together a bunch of guys who haven't really been playing together at all this season. Yeah, but one of the things when I look at Canada specifically, and you look at guys that are very familiar and they're going to play in the spots that they play in with their

particular team. I think it sets up that nobody's going to play out of position. I think that's helpful. But you're right, the two things people asked me last year, I was doing a study on the Philadelphia Flyers. What's wrong with their power play? So you start looking at the good power place. And you mentioned one of the top two factors is familiarity.

And when you have at least three of those players that have played together for at least five years, those are the power plays are going to be in the top five. And the other thing is you've got to have guys that are 30 plus goal scores at five on five or power play. You got have good players. And so Canada's got the good players. And they've got them in the right spots. The one thing that they'll do, and again, just speaking from what we did at Team North America, when I say we, I didn't do it.

It was Jay Woodcroft and Tom McClellan around the power play. But everything was simple. It was incredibly simple. And a lot of teams will have four or five power play breakouts. Team North Korea had two because you're either going to drop the puck or we're going to go and we're going to go four up. So I think you have to simplify it first of all. And everybody knows where their position is. And I think, again, it's going to be helpful to have these guys familiar with where they're going to be at their best.

And so I think that that's going to help the Canadian power play. but when you look at some of these other power plays, I think Canada and U.S., I think that both fits for them, but you look at Finland and Sweden. And these guys, again, really good hockey players on those power plays. But they're the setup guys. They're the guys that help get the puck to the guys that score. I guess the Binidjad in Sweden,

but you look at the guys that are really putting up points and putting up the goals, they're in the other teams. The Canadian, the Swedes and the Finns are the guys that are set up guys. the guys that do it all or retrieving pucks. You know, you got Barkov. Barkov's not the main cog in that wheel in Florida. He retrieves pucks and he moves the puck extremely well, but it's Reinhardt that drives the bus.

So I think you've got those pieces, but you've got ranting and I know he's a goal score, but he's still not the guy that drives that power play when you're looking at McCarr at the top or McKinnon off the left flank. So I'm curious to see how well these Swedens and the Swedes and Finns can establish their power play quickly enough to generate off. offense. And I don't know if they've got the firepower in their power play units to be better than the USA and Canada when they're facing those teams head to head.

Well, I'd say the same for the projected top unit power play for Team USA as well, right? Similar to Canada in the sense that there's just so much talent and skill. Yes. That I would bet on it to figure it out. But just thinking about how they want to attack and what they do for their regular clubs, it's awesome having Matthew Kachukuk at the goal line, certainly one of the best guys the league that Adam Fox Manning the point. But then you have this kind of weird setup with Jack Hughes and Jack Eichol where they

theoretically want to do the same thing. I think Hughes at this point has been more willing as a shooter. But both guys want to be kind of coming down that left flank downhill, setting up for others, circling the net, probing, trying to set you up. And so it's going to be interesting to see how those guys adapt. Now, they're both very good players. The reason they do that for their teams is because they're just, such unique skaters and they can get they can create so much more than anyone else can.

I'm sure that in a more defined role, they'll probably be able to still excel. But it'll just be interesting to see sort of that interplay between the two and how they fit in with each other, I guess. But they won't. If there is issues or are issues quickly on that properly, they won't last long. They'll make changes. And I think that that's one of the other things that you saw. And again, I'm going to refer back to Team North America a lot, how you looked at the line

combinations. It didn't work. You change it like now because you don't have time to. go, well, let's work into this, you know, 10 games down the road, these guys might find, you get Jake Gensel right now leads all USA players and power play goals. He's not in either one projected right now. And so he's a guy that's chomping at the bit ready to go, okay, I'm ready. I'm ready.

Like, I'm here. So if there's anybody that has a misstep or it doesn't fit, they'll make a change. And I go to Jack Eichel. And Jack Eichel, when he was at Team North America, and again, you're talking about very, there's guys that haven't found their way yet. They were very immature kids. They were all under 23. Jack Eichael was young.

But he's coming off the draft. He's a pretty big deal. And Tom McClellan tried to move Jack Eichael to the wing. And you could see a difference in that player in that first practice where they put him on the wing. Because there's so many centers on that team, North America, they just had to mix it up. Jack Eichael was not happy playing on the wing. He didn't fit on the wing. He didn't look as fast.

He didn't look as interested, maybe on the wing. So we went back to the middle of the ice and it fed. And I think you're going to see that on the American power play as well. I don't know exactly if these five fit as well as the Canadians. On paper, the Canadians have the best power play. Those five in their positions are absolutely, they're solid. They know that position extremely well. They're set where they're going to play.

I'm not sure the Americans have found it yet. And I wouldn't be surprised if between now and the second period on Thursday night that you see a change. Let's go through a couple more guys before we take our break, similar to what we said about Raymond, kind of younger players in this tournament that could take a bigger role or kind of work their way up, people's just general perception of them or appreciation of them.

I think Seth Jarvis is one that really comes to mind for me, right? Because he's starting out playing on this line with Braden Point and Brad Marchion, which seems like an absolute nightmare of a line to have to play against considering their work ethic and grinding mentality and battle winning and just how they're not going to give you any bit of ice for free. You're going to have to earn every single bit of space.

You get against them. And kind of to piggyback off the point you were making earlier about guys fitting roles and finding ways to contribute on what's essentially an all-star team, Seth Jarvis, playing with Sebastian Ajo on the Hurricanes on their PK unit has been so electric this season. He really has for a while now, but especially this year, he's played 90 minutes short-handed on the canes. And in that time, the Hurricanes are only down seven to five. They're almost playing opposing power plays to a draw. It seems like every time I watch Hurricanes game, they're short-handed,

and Aho and Jarvis are coming down on a two-on-one, great opportunity of their own. And so I feel like his unique set of skills here, I know when they named the team, people were surprised a little bit that he made it. I think he's going to work his way up this depth chart, and you're going to come out of this tournament with just a whole new level of appreciation

for what kind of a player he is. And so just from fitting that role, and especially exemplifying a lot of what you're saying about this tournament being such a great encapsulation of kind of modern hockey, the pace it's played at, the types of skills that you need to have to fit in and thrive in today's NHL, it feels like he's going to check off so many of these boxes for this team, Canada team. And what I think people are going to see is the flexibility of a guy like of Seth Jarrett's that for Carolina, clearly he does everything, he's 5.15, he kills and he's on the power play. He does everything. He won't get that opportunity with this team because there's so many players above him in this lineup. But I do think he provides something like you said that I'm not sure every team has. That line specifically is going to bother people.

And they're going to frustrate teams. And we talked about the ability to be on the power play. We have to generate power plays. And that line may be a line that's going to get under player skins because there's a lot of tempers in the red, white and blue for sure. They got both kichucks. And you know how they can kind of get. lost in that anger. You can see them sitting in the penalty box. So I think Seth Divers can do that, but he's also got the ability to play with pace. He can move the puck extremely well. It gets

puck's at the net extremely well and the penalty killing. And we talked about teams not being prepared or built the right way. I think when you go back to the 2016 Americans, I think they overthought it. I think they tried to get this team that was tougher than the Canadians that could push Canada out of the building. Unfortunately, it didn't win a game. It didn't matter that they built themselves so tough. So I think you do. need to build spots. Look at the top two penalty killing forward pairs for Canada with Sorrelli

and Hegel and Marner and Jarvis. You got guys who kill penalties. I'm very good at penalty killing. And the one trend in the NHL right now is you get high skilled players killing penalties, one, because their anticipation is so good and their footwork is so good, but they can get opportunities going back the other

way. I think Canada's penalty kill is going to be very good. And again, I go back to a short tournament like this, how important special teams are. I think you nailed it with Seth Jarvis. he's going to be one of those guys that's going to make a difference. Might not be on the score sheet, and you might not talk about it in the press conference,

but Seth Jarvis is going to make a difference for Canada in this short tournament. The guy that I want to say for Team USA is Matt Boldy, just because playing in Minnesota, I feel like he goes generally unappreciated. And I feel like he's such a play connector, especially with the way he plays. Like, he's so good coming off the wall, does a lot of these little things that add up.

to the plays of larger significance. And so in this type of tournament where he's just going to be playing with other really good players, ramping up the pace, I feel like he's going to be able to really thrive and work his way up the depth chart.

But I do want to shout out Zach Wrenski, not necessarily a quote-unquote young player because he's been around for a while. Now obviously, and he's having a hell of a season. He's right there in the top three for Norris consideration,

and he's been such a workhorse for Columbus, but especially with Quinny. Hughes pulling out of this tournament, I do feel like it provides this added opportunity for a guy like Werenski to play especially more offensively oriented minutes because it seems like if Fox is playing with Slavin, that's going to be a combo that's used for Team USA in a more defensive assignments. And I think to play against the other team's top guys. And so it's going to be incumbent for Werenski to push the play and essentially do what he does on Columbus, which is activate the rush, sprint up the ice, just try to be involved and do that.

everything that makes him such a unique defenseman in today's game. And so I want to see him keep building off what he's been doing in Columbus because he's been such a treat to watch. And his his his his motor of being able to just sprint up the ice and then come back and defend and do it for 29 to 30 minutes every single night. I'm not sure he's going to have to do that from a that from a volume perspective on this team because you have so many other good defensemen. But it's just such a unique way in terms of the way he's able to move on the ice compared to a lot of his other peers. So I feel like with Hughes not in this tournament,

he has a type of skill set that I think is going to be very important for Team USA if they're going to be able to create enough, especially even strength offense in a head-to-head against a team Canada, for example. Yeah, there's no question. Wrenski brings just, when you talk about the ability to defend, play in the offensive zone,

move the puck off the ice, be physical enough to separate guys in the corners, that's going to be necessary here. But his footwork is good, is so good that he's able to keep up with these players. and that's going to be a huge key. And when you look at the Americans' defense, and Canadian listeners might not like this. But on paper, this might be the best six

the Americans have put out in an international tournament in a very long time. Because of their ability to skate and keep up with the pace of the game, you look at Slaven and how underrated he may be. And again, I know you get into the analytics. So on your show, he probably isn't. But Slaven, unbelievable defender.

Brock Faber can do literally both sides of the puck. This is a solid six defensemen. And with Sanderson being a late addition, I wouldn't be surprised to see him get some action too. And this defense for American, the Americans are better than what I expected them to have coming into this tournament. I always expect Canada to dominate. Now, Canada might have the best defenseman in the world of McCall McCar playing in this. But that's where Quinn Hughes is going to be missed. Quinn Hughes, his ability, especially on the power play.

Like the Americans, we talked about a disjoint of power play. He sure could help. if you have him quarterbacking that top power play unit for the Americans. But I think with Matt Boldie, and I agree with you because he's another guy. He's 23 years old. People don't know him. He's got 30 goals in this league once, almost twice at 29. He's going to get 30 again this year.

He's got to put puck in the net. And he plays with pace. He plays with size. And again, his ability to make those plays in the corners and off the wall and then get the puck to the net is going to be imperative in a tournament like this. I still think you need to be greedy enough in a tournament. like this. I don't think you can be all skill because I don't think you can win. I don't think you can have guys specifically bottom six forwards that can't skate though. Yeah. And that's where I

think, but boldy for me is it's going to be a guy that again, curious right now. And I know the projected lines may change today. Like practice lines day one versus day two, you've got in with Brady Kachuk and their ability to drive to the net could be really interesting. I'm really looking forward to seeing what the Americans and how they actually go to go in their lines, what their lines are going to look like by later in the week. All right, PD, let's take our break here. And then we come back. We'll jump back into it.

I got a few other things that I want to talk to you about in preparation for this tournament. You're listening to the Hockey Pediocast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network. All right. We're back here in the Hockey Ocas joined by Steve Peters. We're doing our, yeah, let's call it our Four Nations preview here. I like it. It's starting in two days. It's going to hopefully get people excited about and thinking about it in terms of what to look for when these games start on Wednesday.

I wanted to ask you about how. you feel these games are going to be played from an intensity level in particular, right? And then we can talk more about, you know, excitement, I guess, for this tournament and viewership and how many people are going to be tuned in and how it's going to be received. I think it'll certainly, part of that is it's sort of the first question is going to answer the second one in a way, right? Because if it's a bit more of a all-star event in terms of intensity, then I feel like people are going to be checked out pretty quickly. It's like, all right, whatever, maybe care about the championship game, but for the most part,

won't be that enthusiastic about it. I feel like it probably will be played at a very high level, just because we've seen and heard so much from the players involved already in terms of what an honor this is to be named to their teams, the pride level in representing their countries. I think also the fact that it's a bit of a carrot in terms of positioning. for the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics as well, right, trying to solidify your spot on those future teams and being part of the equation where respective countries. So I think we're going to see a very competitive setting,

especially as it goes along, there might be a bit of a slower adjustment period in the first game or so or maybe the first period and then it ramps up a little bit as kind of guys get their feet wet. But it is a quick turnaround, right? Like we were just playing NHL games on Saturday, Sunday, and then all of a sudden, three days later, you're in Montreal playing these games

with a whole new set of guys. So it makes sense that there'd be that feeling out period. But I'm glass-half-full here, I think, at least heading in in terms of my anticipation of what these games are going to look like from an effort level. It's interesting. I think you are going to have a pre-season feel

to that game on Wednesday and maybe Thursday. Just because of what you said about timing and the ability to play with these guys for just two or three quick skates, But as far as intensity, I'm on the camp that these guys are coming in hard. And this is going to be really good intense hockey. And I read somewhere that a reporter said, oh, you see Peter Angel dropping out. You're going to see players dropping out.

And first of all, you didn't. You saw players doing the exact opposite. Sidney Crosby flying in trying to make this team when he's injured. Quinn Hughes absolutely did not want to drop out of this tournament. Guys want a player. They absolutely want to represent their country because everybody wants to play best on best and you want to go back to your locker room in two weeks winning this tournament, period. You want to be, if you're an American, you want to be in there going USA, USA when you get back to work in Florida. You just do.

And I'm telling you it's going to be intense. And the World Cup of hockey, Team North America was a team that clearly was Americans and Canadian. So you didn't have that national pride built in that you didn't have the swing. that I ever dreamed about putting on that North American sweater. They didn't have that. But when the puck dropped, man, they were all in. And I say that for the entire tournament, there were some guys. Hey, everybody had fun.

It was September. Like, it wasn't the season yet. When they weren't playing, they had fun. It's downtown Toronto. That team was gone for a month in Montreal, Toronto, and Quebec. Everybody had fun. No question. But when it's time to play hockey, they played hockey.

And the difference here is going to be these guys, Some will have their families. This is their break. It's their All-Star break. They are going to have fun. They're going to go out to very nice dinners. They're going to be with their buddies from other teams. They're going to enjoy it.

They'll go out for a pop or two. And they're going to have fun. But when you put on that team Canada, USA, Finland, or Sweden, Jersey, and the puck drops, you are all in. I have no doubt. Zero doubt that once Matthew Kachuk put someone through the glass, the game's on. And there is no doubt in my mind that this is going to be a highly competitive tournament, that these guys want to win.

And regardless if it's a made-up middle-of-season tournament, when you put on your country sweater, you're going to want to play. I believe that wholeheartedly. Yeah, I completely agree. I think people might underrate what an incentive bragging rights are for especially the players involved in this tournament. Like when you reach that certain status in the league and who you kind of compare yourself to,

and then everything that entails, I feel like that's going to be a factor here. I'm also curious to see we talked about some of the guys like a Jarvis or a Raymond who could use this tournament as a launching pad for a second half run and heading into

the postseason and just the rest of their careers really and kind of what that could mean for them. I think you could spin it the other way and I'm curious to see if there's benefits for players who aren't involved in this tournament who are taking that time off because their countries aren't involved. Nikita Kutrov

comes to mind for me right? Because for the lightning he's been playing since the new year the lightning i've had 20 games jammed into this stretch of like 38 days or whatever and he was playing 2312 per game in that time which is outrageous for a forward of course and so now he's got two extra weeks of additional rest to get his body right for a stretch run same with a dry cycle and we know his workload in edmonton or david pasturac for the bruin so i feel like for some of those guys as well i'm sure they'd love to be involved in this tournament and they're going to be sort of grumpy about it, just like sitting at home watching or from the beach

or wherever they're spending their time. But ultimately, I feel like that's probably going to do them good. And obviously it also eliminates whatever injury risk is involved as well in playing in these games, especially if as a chairman goes on, they're being played at a very intense, almost playoff-like feel. Yeah, it's going to be that ageal debate of rest versus rust. And if you're not playing and you didn't get selected for your team or your country isn't playing, oh,

I'm getting a lot of rest. Everything's great. But if you're in the tournament, you're going, oh, I'm going to keep the engine going. I'm not going to miss a beat. I'm going to be at full speed when we start playing again in this third week of February and I'm ready to go. So really, I'm not sure how much it matters. I really don't. Injuries, 100% the rest is going to be great. And these guys that are that are not participating in this tournament will be on the ice and they'll be practicing prior to these guys being back into their team's locker room. So they will be back on the ice. I am curious, though, two things with that. Injuries are going to be a part of hockey.

And I'm waiting to see the first injury that's going to affect someone's Stanley Cup playoff run. And I'm please hope we get through this tournament without anybody getting hurt. I knock on wood, let's hope. But if that happens, will the NHL look back and go, gosh, I'm not so sure we lost X player for a particular length of time? So I think there is some concern for injuries without a doubt. And then the other part I'm wondering about is teams that have multiple players. And we look at the Florida Panthers and how many players they have across the four teams. How is that going to affect them?

Even when they get back as a team to start practicing, not everybody is going to be there because they're still going to be participating in this tournament. Will that cause them to start slow out of the gate or just the opposite, like you said, with the rust is now that they're. oiled up and they're all running hot that this team's going to come out really smoking in the second half. Honestly, I don't know. And I don't know every coach in the league, I guarantee Utah that has no players there. Well, I guess you still Velomacki and all they're there for Utah. They're going, okay, all of our forward groups get in a rest. And I know they're sitting there thinking

that we're getting a rest. We're getting a rest. But Florida is going, hey, our guys are still playing. I think you have to play the card that you've been dealt. And hopefully it works out for you. Yeah. It'll be, it'll be very. very interesting to see. I've got two more questions here as we wrap up our Four Nations preview that I wanted to ask you that I think are going to be interesting to track. We haven't spoken much about Finland, obviously, yet. Understandably so.

They're being positioned as the fourth team in this tournament. You look at even the odds or probability of them winning it and how heavy of an underdog they are compared to the other three. I wanted to ask you whether you think they stand a chance of playing. the role of a disruptor in this tournament. They start off Thursday in the first game against Team USA. I'm curious to see what they're capable of because obviously from a pure talent perspective, the sheer firepower they have pales in comparison to the other three.

Yet I think they have two things working for them. One is we talk a lot about the chemistry or continuity or sort of familiarity playing with these players. and you look especially the forward group, they have a lot of combinations, whether it's Ranting, playing with Lekinen, who obviously spent a lot of time with playing in Colorado,

and then now Sebastian Aho, most recently in Carolina since the trade, you got Rupa Hintz and now Michael Granlin, who's his teammate on the Dallas Stars. You've certainly got the combination of Lundell and Lusterinen, which is an absolutely phenomenal forward pairing

for the Florida Panthers. So you've got that familiarity. You've also got a team that, Team Canada and Team USA, for example, right? They're being coached by John Cooper and Mike Sullivan, respectively. I know they've known that this was going to be their role for a while now, so especially the last off season. I know they had a lot of sort of summits with their staffs

in terms of trying to get ahead of this and prepare and kind of throw around strategies or potential ways you could use a lot of the players in you. They were going to be on the teams, but they're coming straight from coaching their teams. John Cooper was coaching in Montreal against the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday, on Sunday morning or afternoon, and then all of a sudden now three days later,

he's having a coach an entirely different team, whereas Finland and Sweden both are being coached by guys who have had, this has been their main job. Like they've been preparing for this for months now. They've had a full runway, I guess, to get everything in order, to do a lot of their scouting, to just fully think about how this tournament's going to work for their teams and not worry about the other clubs.

So I think that is a bit of an advantage, especially right out of the gate where we might expect a bit of a slower start from some of these other teams. Yeah. And it's interesting because you've seen that success with Finland at the world juniors. And this is a team that's going to be very well coached and they're going to play as a group. And I know with all of the individual talent on Canada and the USA, I do think there is some strength in having that familiarity and that system. and a coach that's been working on, hey, how are we going to beat Team Canada? How are we going to beat Team USA?

And that's all he's thought about, not how we're going to beat Chicago on a Tuesday night. I think that that will help them. They're still going to have to play at their best every single shift. This is a team that is, unfortunately, they're outmanned up front. I like, again, I like their forwards. And we know how key, you know, Sasha Barkov was to the Florida Panthers, winning the Stanley Cup.

He's a big piece of that. But again, he, he, he, He's the guy that fills those roles. He's a 200-foot player that needs people around him to complete the task of winning games. And I'm not sure this defense is strong enough, top to bottom. I think that's probably their biggest weakness is their ability to defend with their six defensemen. You're going to look through that list. And unfortunately, because of some injuries, it's not the six that they were hoping to go to this tournament with.

So I do think that's one of their weaknesses. And I'm not sure if UCRiles has played his best. hockey this year either. So I do, I can never be surprised. They're all NHL players. They're all very good NHL players. But this is the team. If they come out on top in their games against USA and Canada, I'd be awful surprised. Yeah. If there is one lingering question, especially early on, it's going to be sort of trying to jump in and immediately replicate playoff intensity and effort level. And I don't have that question about this team. I feel pretty confident that they're going to be treating it as if it's game step from the Stanley Cup final.

right away. And so I feel like that might buy them a little bit of time or give them a little bit of an edge. But you're right. The margin for error is so low. I think one thing we know is if you can decrease the amount of events and that's going to be tougher because Team Canada and Team USA have so many star players that they're going to be pushing to create so it's easier said than done. But if you can play a more low event kind of mucking it up type of game, that increases the variance. And I think increases the potential of making some sort of noise here as a disruptor. The injury to, I mean, obviously, especially compared to the replacements, even losing Ristalline and Hertz, losing Mero Hayskin in for this tournament is such a massive blow because I was especially curious to see what his usage would look like in this event, considering how much better he is than any other option they have, and the fact that we know that there's going to be longer TV timeouts

and it's going to be more drawn out these games and you're not playing every other day. And so all of a sudden now, you would have had the possibility of just playing him like 35 minutes If you wanted to, I'm sure Jim Nill and the stars would have been watching with their fingers covering their eyes, hoping and praying that he didn't wind up getting hurt in those games. So you remove that now. But yeah, it's going to be tough for them. But in a tournament this short, with all the things they have working for them, the way I said, I wouldn't be a surprise at all to see them at least very competitive.

The one final question I have for you here is can Elias Pedersen build some momentum? because we saw the J.T. Miller trade in Vancouver that removed at least one distraction from the team. Now, in the first couple games following that, there wasn't necessarily a big change. I will say that the most recent game he played before the break, Saturday night, hockey night in Canada with the Leafs here in Vancouver, he played arguably the best game I've seen him play all year, maybe even dating back to halfway through last year. He was being matched up against Matthews and Nylander.

he held them in check. He had this sort of throwback, Elias Pedersen sequence on one of the goals he created where he reversed, checks Simone Benoit, knocks him on his butt, steals the puck again, sets up Philopronic on this beautiful cross-ice look for a redirection goal.

And I was like, all right, this is the player that I think everyone fell in love with and earned the contract that he did and scored 100 plus points two years ago. He's clearly been playing hurt all year, right? You look at the speed, in terms of his skating ability to slow down,

his shot velocities to slow down. The amount of times he's actually shooting the pocket, especially one-timing it, has completely deteriorated, and those are all kind of hallmarks of a player that isn't feeling right physically. And so I think that's part of this. But Team Sweden's going to need him

because you mentioned the other players there earlier on, and you're mentioning guys like Mika Zabinajad, and you look at the rest of the centers, Joel Erickson-Ek, Alaska Landholm, good players, but none of them have the offensive ability, especially at this point of their careers, that at least theoretically, Patterson has. And he's going to be centering a line with Adrian Kempay, who we both love, and Philip Forsberg.

And those two guys have arguably a hundredth percentile cool factor and flared their game and just aura, as the kids like to say. And so in that situation, playing with those two guys, it's such a good spot for him to just get back to playing fun hockey and getting the most out of his immense skill set. And if he can do that, not only would it be a huge boost for Team Sweden in this tournament, but obviously from a Canucks perspective, seeing that, considering the wild card race they're in and everything that's involved with his contract and potential trades and everything, I feel like would be such a massive development.

So I'm going to be watching this tournament from that perspective to see if he can start playing that type of game offensively because of what it would be. moving forward for everyone involved. Yeah, and the biggest thing for me for Pedersen is there's no other Vancouver collects in the locker room. And there's been so much said about this and all the discourse going on there that now he can be himself again. It's just a deep breath.

I put on a different sweater. I've got a different voice coming from the coaches room. I got different voices from the guys sitting next to me on the stalls in the locker room. I think this is going to give him an opportunity just almost like a clean slate. Like, okay, I can just go play hockey again. And he needs to, but not only for the success of Sweden, because Sweden needs him. Offensively, this is a, like you said, Joel Erick's a nice player, but he's a guy that feeds the offense, not drives the offense in Minnesota. And Linholm, the same in Boston.

He's a guy that hasn't had the season that they were hoping for him to have it. So you're going to have to get the offense from somewhere. It's going to be Pedersen. But it's beyond that. It's much deeper than that. Can he have a full-on reset over the, two weeks. And I think it's for him specifically, it's more important that that reset happens on the ice. I don't know if that reset for him happens in a beach, you know, with a Pina Colada. If he gets as much of a

reset, he'll get that mental reset. But this is a clean slate. It can help push and purge a lot of that and lift the weight off his shoulders. I think it's a huge moment, not just in this season, but for his career. Because he is a player that you've seen him at his best. And he hasn't had that for a while. consistently. And I think this may be that opportunity now with Trey Crona and you get him excited about playing again with players he's excited to play with and just have fun playing the game again. Maybe that's the catalyst to pull him out of whatever he's been dealing with internally with the Vancouver Canucks. I think it's a huge opportunity for him to build some momentum and get back on track and just return to the forum that he needs to be at and the Canucks need him to be at. All right, Pedy,

We're going to get out here. That's all the time we have for today. I'll let you plug some stuff here on the way out. Let the listeners know where they can check you out. I know you put out a really cool video recently looking at the Aves top line and the goals they're creating. I did a full show last week about Marty Natchis. I didn't want to rehash that too much here today because we just spent so much time talking about it. But honestly, that line is just so unbelievably fun to watch that I think it would be very justifiable if we did.

Let the listeners know about that and where they can check out all your stuff moving forward. You know, I'm a former video guy, so I like to break down film, and I've started my own YouTube channel at Inside the Coaches Room on YouTube. Check that out or just follow me at S. Peters hockey on Twitter. And I do encourage you the way this whole episode started off today, we're talking about Team North America. And I just like Dimitri, I did the same thing. Go watch the first five minutes. It's on YouTube. Team North America versus Sweden.

The Matthew scores a goal in 30 seconds in, 45 seconds in McDavid's a breakaway. A minute in Johnny Goodro gets a penalty. shot that first five minutes and then fast forward and watch the overtime might be some of the best fastest offensive hockey you will ever see. Don't wait till this episode's over and make sure you listen to Dimitri, but go check out that honestly I just did it again today and it gives me chills to see how fast that game was. I mean, what else do you? What better things do you have to do right now, especially with No NHO Hockey on? You don't even need to watch just those segments. Just watch the full game. I think the full thing is up on YouTube. If you can

can't find it, message me, I will gladly direct you towards the link because it's one of my favorite videos I've been watching it so many times. All right, PD, this is a blast. I'm glad we got to do this with you. Keep up with great work. We're going to have you on again soon once play resumes. Thank you to everyone for listening to us. If you want to help us out, smash that five-star button, wherever you listen to the show, pop into the PDOC, Kast, Discord, get in questions for future mailbags. We'll have some more time in the next couple weeks to answer those questions. And that's all for today. We'll be back Thursday. We'll have a have a game to talk about. We're going to break down

the Four Nations opener between Canada and Sweden. So looking forward to that. Thank you for listening to the Hockey PiedioCast streaming on the Sportsnet Radio Network.