4 Nations Face-Off Game 2: Team USA vs. Team Finland
Start time: **8:00 PM EST / 5:00 PM PST**
Venue: Bell Centre, Montreal
In Canada: Sportsnet (English), TVA Sports (French)
In the United States: ESPN
Streaming: ESPN+ (USA), Sportsnet+ (CAN)
If there were any doubts about the quality of play at the 4 Nations Face-Off, last night’s opener between Canada and Sweden should have put them to rest. The game’s superstars are giving everything they have to securing wins for their nations. We saw a fight back from Sweden, and then some great play in a 10-minute overtime period allowed the home team to get the win, to the delight of the crowd in Montreal.
Tonight, there are different reasons to cheer, and you expect the crowd to largely be behind Patrik Laine and Joel Armia’s Team Finland rather than Team USA. Especially with the U.S. opting not to select Cole Caufield, who is tied for third among American players with 26 goals scored, the support will likely be skewed toward the only team in the tournament that will have Montreal Canadiens representatives on the ice.
Finland will need all the support it can get to pull off the upset. The team is quite strong at forward, but defence is going to be an issue for the nation as they’ve had to plumb the depths of their NHL talent to put the roster together.
No matter which goaltender from any era Finland could have chosen for their team, they would have been labelled second-best in this game tonight. Connor Hellebuyck is having arguably the best season of his NHL career, and he won the Vezina Trophy last year. Before the tournament even began he was an early tournament MVP favourite, and Finland will need to find ways to beat him that few NHL teams have come up with this season.
Team USA projected lineup
| Forwards | Defencemen | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing | Left Defence | Right Defence | |
| Kyle Connor | Jack Eichel | Matthew Tkachuk | Zach Werenski | Charlie McAvoy | |
| Jake Guentzel | Auston Matthews | Jack Hughes | Jaccob Slavin | Adam Fox | |
| Brady Tkachuk | J.T. Miller | Matt Boldy | Noah Hanifin | Brock Faber | |
| Brock Nelson | Vincent Trocheck | Dylan Larkin | |||
| Goalies | |||||
| Scratched | Starter | Backup | |||
| Chris Kreider | Jake Sanderson | Jeremy Swayman | Connor Hellebuyck | Jake Oettinger | |
Team Finland projected lineup
| Forwards | Defencemen | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Left Wing | Centre | Right Wing | Left Defence | Right Defence | |
| Artturi Lehkonen | Aleksander Barkov | Mikko Rantanen | Niko Mikkola | Esa Lindell | |
| Roope Hintz | Sebastian Aho | Patrik Laine | Urho Vaakanainen | Nicolas Matinpalo | |
| Eetu Luostarinen | Anton Lundell | Mikael Granlund | Olli Maatta | Henri Jokiharju | |
| Teuvo Teravainen | Erik Haula | Joel Armia | |||
| Goalies | |||||
| Scratched | Starter | Backup | |||
| Juuso Valimaki | Kaapo Kakko | Kevin Lankinen | Juuse Saros | Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen | |
