Since its announcement, there has been a lot of speculation about the 4-Nations Tournament, especially about which players would be on which rosters and what they would do for each team because some nations have been left off. Now that the tournament rosters have been revealed, we have our answer: a few Bruins will be playing for three of the four teams! To be honest, given how awful the Rangers have been, I’m not sure I’ll bring so many of them to the tournament, and I’m not sure I’ll leave Tage Thompson at home, but other than that, this is the best lineup the States can assemble. They’re taking a few big name Bs with them, after all!
Goalie Jeremy Swayman and defender Charlie McAvoy will accompany the Americans. I don’t think Swayman will be much more than a permanent backup, especially since he is in the same goalkeeper pool as Jake Oettinger and Connor Hellebuyck. Unfortunately, McAvoy has been in the NHL for so long that he has hardly had the chance to play for Team USA; his last appearance wearing their sweater was during the 2017 World Championships, where he scored nine points in six games. Swayman has a lot of experience with Team USA, including the outdoor game at Orchard Park where they wore sweaters inspired by the Bills with the World Junior squad back in 2017.
Given how drastically the US has pumped quality talent into the league, It’s hard not to be at least a little optimistic about the States’ chances as potential winners. It’s lightyears ahead of the roster the last NHL-sanctioned international tournament ran, that’s for goddamn sure.
With a wealth of offensive and defensive options, Team Canada is as strong as ever up front. Their defence also appears to be better than I had anticipated, but my, that goaltender corps looks terrible. The way that Red and White (and occasionally Black) have handled goaltender development at almost every stage of the game is really odd. Perhaps that’s not so awful after all, their Bruin this year should know enough about poor goalkeeper performance and how to improve it.
Brad Marchand, the only player from the Bruins to represent Team Canada, hasn’t been able to defeat the Maple Leafs in anything other than removing them from the playoffs in a long time. He won that dumb plastic vase at the 2016–17 World Cup of Hockey, which is something I will never, ever, ever forget. That was his last international appearance with Canada.
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