The greatest hockey ever played featured a rather simple concept.
Put the best two players in the world together.
Midway through the three-game final of the 1987 Canada Cup, Mike Keenan put Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux together and played the living hell out of them.
It was magic.
Which brings us here to 4 Nations. Hear me out.
BetMGM has the U.S. and Canada as co-favorites coming into the tournament, but in my mind, Team USA on paper should win this event, the goaltending alone giving them a real edge. The Americans are deeper, top to bottom, than any of the other three teams. I mean, when Dylan Larkin is on your fourth line, you know you’re cooking with oil.
The U.S. being the team to beat is, of course, a tough thing for any Canadian hockey fan to hear. But right now, it’s the truth.
All of which is why Team Canada may need to steal a page out of Keenan’s ’87 Canada Cup playbook.
Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar should be over the boards all the freaking time in the event. With no back-to-back games, Team Canada’s best chance to win this event is to unleash the world’s best player, the world’s second-best player and arguably the world’s greatest defenseman as much as possible.
GO FURTHER
Team Canada’s 4 Nations nuclear option: Could they channel 1987, put MacKinnon, McDavid together?
