MONTREAL, QC – The long-awaited return for the NHL’s best-on-best competition is tonight with Canada opening the 4 Nations Face-Off against Sweden. It will be the 10th time the two nations will go up against one another with Canada holding an 8-1-0 record in the previous nine meetings.
From listening to all of the players who have gathered for this event, you hear the genuine excitement that they all have to play for their countries again. Winnipeg Jets defenceman Josh Morrissey believes it won’t take long for the competitive juices to start flowing.
“I think it’s going to be right off the hop, it’s gotta be right away. I think you can tell the guys are getting ready to go, kind of feeling ready for the puck to drop,” said Morrissey.
“Such a short event, there’s not a lot of time to sort of ease into things. You have to be ready to go right away. It’s three games and obviously top two teams get into the final. No time to waste and it has to start for us at puck drop.”
Swedish forward Filip Forsberg, who has faced Morrissey many times when the Jets and Nashville Predators get together also believes the pace will be intense early.
“I don’t think there’s any hold back from anyone,” said Forsberg.
“Obviously we are all here proudly to represent our countries and it’ll be good.”
Canada’s head coach Jon Cooper said that his team doesn’t have a lot of time to feel any pressure with just two days of practice and then playing their first game. Connor McDavid, who is taking part of his first international event since 2018, agrees with his coach.
“I think it’s a great thing. Just two days of practice and off we go,” said McDavid.
“It’s about coming together as quick as you can. Everybody’s in the same boat here. Sweden was in the same boat. So, drop the puck and lets play and let’s see what happens.”
Morrissey will start the night paired with the Blues Colton Parayko. While the two haven’t played together before in an event like this, Parayko believes their styles complement one another.
“He’s such a good player, just everything that he does. I think he’s a good quick puck mover and then I try to use my feet just to get out of some plays and just use my size and to try to eliminate plays as quickly as possible,” said Parayko.
“He does a good job in the o-zone, so just try to complement each other that way. But game one, just try to get a good start and then build as much as possible from that.”
At Canada’s first practice on Monday, Morrissey was on Canada’s second power play unit. Tuesday saw Flyers forward Travis Konecny return from an illness and he replaced Morrissey. Of course, Morrissey quarterbacks the top power play unit for the Jets who have the NHL’s best power play heading into the 4 Nations break at 33.3%
“Everyone has their roles with their NHL teams. You come here to play for your country, it’s about adapting and being flexible and doing whatever’s needed to help the team,” said Morrissey.
“Lots of guys have experience playing for the national team before and I think that’s an important factor to just embrace. There’s so many great players here and everyone’s got the ability to play whatever role is needed.”
Another familiar name to Jets fans is Canada’s starting goaltender tonight, Jordan Binnington. There is a lot of discussion at this event about the lack of depth at the most important position, but people quickly forget that the Blues number one goalie won a Stanley Cup in 2019.
“Everyone’s seen him play. He’s a guy that doesn’t quit on pucks. When you think you have an opportunity, maybe you have him out of position or whatever it may be, he’s a guy who’s going to keep fighting in the net and make the save you don’t expect him to,” said Konecny.
“And he’s just a gamer. I mean, I played against him for a while now and he’s tough to play against.”
The majority of experts have the United States and Canada playing in the final in Boston on February 20. Sweden comes into a hostile arena that will be anticipating Canada to get their first win.
“This is a special place, it’s a great arena. It’s a great fan base,” said Swedish defenceman Erik Karlsson.
“To have the opportunity to play Canada here, it’s going to be very cool to experience that yourself.”
ICE CHIPS
Vegas defenceman Shea Theodore was part of the 2015 Canadian World Junior team that played at the World Juniors in Montreal and Toronto. Morrissey said on Tuesday that a some of the Canadians on the 4 Nations team have been reminiscing about that time together.
“I think when we were at the Canadiens kind of practice facility (in Brossard), seemed like 10 years before with McDavid and Reinhart and Morrissey,” said Theodore.
“So, it’s kind of funny, kind of brings back old memories but good memories for sure.”
