MONTREAL — As he watched Team USA practice Tuesday, Bill Guerin pondered the question.
How does the Olympics, which begin in less than a year, loom over this 4 Nations tournament? The two are inextricably linked, of course, by the short amount of time in between the best-on-best events and the overlapping roster choices.
“Honestly, this is the bulk of the team that will be in the Olympics,” the United States’ GM for both events told The Athletic as he motioned to his players on the Bell Centre ice. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the whole team. Because there’s so many good players. There’s always injuries. There’s guys having off years. Guys having great years. There’s just a lot.
“Listen, the last week a lot has happened, a lot has changed. Never mind a whole year.”
Like losing No. 1 defenseman Quinn Hughes to injury.
“Right. So I know most of these players will be there (at the Olympics), but there could be some changes,” Guerin said.
So, yes, of course, Team USA wants to win the 4 Nations, but the overarching mission is to glean as much information as possible for Italy. It’s the only best-on-best, in-game information these four countries will have before the Olympics.
The balance will be determining how much to glean from this while not overreacting.
“It’s important, but it’s not the be-all and end-all,” Guerin said. “Body of work is still there. But I’m also looking for fit, the chemistry of the team, things like that. How are we playing together? See the roles, who fits where, acceptance. They’re all great players. It’s the intangible part that I think is really important.”
Coach Mike Sullivan and U.S. players aren’t taking 4 Nations lightly. (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
Team Canada Olympic GM Doug Armstrong was an assistant to GM Steve Yzerman on the 2010 and 2014 Olympic gold-medal teams and was GM for the victorious 2016 World Cup team.
But those events all had more spacing between them. That’s what makes 4 Nations unique.
“It’s different than any event I’ve been at because of how quickly the next event is coming,” Armstrong told The Athletic on Tuesday.
Where Canada and the U.S. differed on approach is that Guerin is GM for both 4 Nations and the Olympics while Armstrong decided it would be best if Don Sweeney was Canada’s GM for 4 Nations. And while Armstrong of course has been part of the management conversations preparing over the past year for this event, he really has made sure that he’s stayed out of the way to some degree, saying that he’s barely spoken with head coach Jon Cooper in the lead-up 4 Nations, leaving that to Sweeney.
Still, whatever transpires at 4 Nations will loom large on what Armstrong focuses on leading into his Olympic decisions.
So while everyone here has made a point of saying they’re focused on 4 Nations only at the moment, the much more important Olympic discussion is impossible to ignore.
“It’s certainly a learning tool for the next event,” Armstrong said. “The focus is on this event and these games here, but the benefit of having another tournament this quickly is that it’s not like a four-year window where some guys are going to retire or younger are going to pop in, we’re a year away. A lot of the names that are either on this team or that we’re scouting will probably be the same names that we talk about when debrief this event at our August (Olympics) meeting.”
Finland GM Jere Lehtinen acknowledged the Olympic tie-in Tuesday but said the biggest thing for him is having his group playing a best-on-best event for the first time in eight and a half years.
“Players haven’t played together here for a long time so they get to experience how they play as a team,” he said. “Overall, it will help build for next year at the Olympics.”
As a standalone event, you can’t blame those hockey fans who are skeptical about why they should care about a made-up tournament called 4 Nations.
But when you understand all the strings tying it to Italy next year, it becomes more apparent how the players themselves care, especially now that everyone has arrived here this week and practiced with their respective teams.
“This is a good precursor for what’s to come — assembling a group like this and seeing how everything works out, chemistry and everything,” Team USA captain Auston Matthews said Tuesday. “I think everybody is still focused on the here and now and playing in this tournament and making sure that we’re taking care of our business here, but I can’t lie and say I’m not looking forward at that opportunity to play in the Olympics, having missed them the last two. So just to have this best-on-best tournament and format is exciting.”
The Olympic part of it all is huge.
“One hundred percent,” Sweden captain Victor Hedman said. “And I think it’s an opportunity for us as well, you know, we don’t see Sam (Hallam) and the coaching staff that often. So for them to get the message across now and show how they want us to play hockey, I think that’s huge. We’ll be together for a week and a half or whatever it is. He has to give us as much information without it being too much. So I think it’s good having this not even a year from the Olympics, to have this competition and get everyone dialed in.”
All of which underlines why players have sounded so serious about the opportunity at hand over the next 10 days. For the critics who thought this might be a glorified All-Star Game, guess again.
“I mean I think it’s being taken pretty seriously,” Mathews said. “A lot of pride playing for your country. Everybody that’s here is very competitive. I don’t expect it to be a Glorified All-Star event, it’s going to be pretty intense.”
Auston Matthews says 4 Nations will be “pretty intense.” (Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
Don’t doubt the players’ buy-in.
“It’s going to be high,” Hedman said. “It’s going to be intense. All four countries want to win. That’s the bottom line. You’re going to see your (NHL) teammates that you play with for most of the year. You’ve just got to put that aside. We’re here to represent Sweden, and we want to make our fans proud. I’m sure everyone else feels the same way.
“It’s not a shinny hockey game. It’s going to be intense.”
Connor Hellebuyck perhaps said it best Tuesday when he reminded us that so many players from his generation weren’t sure if they would ever wear their national jersey in a best-on-best event.
“It’s one of those things that’s kind of escaped me throughout my career,” the Team USA star goalie said. “I had a couple of World Championships, but the NHL didn’t go to the last Olympics so we missed that opportunity. And then you never know. Are you going to get another shot? You’ve got to stay in your prime for when that opportunity comes.
“Being able to put that jersey on now, it’s one of those things that almost felt like it would never happen. Now that it has, it’s pretty surreal.”
There might be fans still holding out on this 4 Nations event. I get it. But the players here are all-in. Because the Olympics are just around the corner.
(Photo: Vitor Munhoz / Getty Images)
