USA favored, Finland embraces underdog role in 4 Nations opener

With a surplus of talent at all positions, Team USA is a favorite at the 4 Nations Face-Off, and heavily favored for its opening game matchup against Finland on Thursday night in Montreal.

The United States boasts its most talented squad assembled for an international tournament since winning the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. It isn't just pure offensive talent donning the red, white and blue, but also plenty of skaters who are happy to be physical forces.

"When you look at the group of players that we've assembled here, I don't think there's a game this group's not capable of playing," head coach Mike Sullivan said. "They're a very capable group. I think we have size, we have speed, we have skill and we have will."

The Americans also have extra motivation for the round-robin tournament that concludes with a championship final on Feb. 20. Hanging in their locker room is a sweater for Johnny Gaudreau, the Columbus Blue Jackets winger who was killed along with his brother while biking in the offseason.

Gaudreau participated in many international events and would have been a shoo-in for this squad. The team invited his father, Guy, to be on the ice for pre-tournament practices and team dinners.

"He's a guy that went to a ton of world championships, scored big goals, big goals in the world juniors," Columbus teammate Zach Werenski said. "He was a USA Hockey legend.

"It definitely gives us some extra motivation."

To no surprise, Team USA will start Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets in goal, and Finland will turn to Nashville Predators goaltender Juuse Saros between the pipes for the opener.

Finland is admittedly short-handed on defense, with a trio of blueliners - including Dallas Stars standout Miro Heiskanen - on the shelf due to injury. Even so, the Finns boast plenty of offensive firepower, and any club would be foolish to look past them.

"I don't think they're going to be underestimating us," said forward Artturi Lehkonen of the Colorado Avalanche. "Everybody knows we lost a few players, but we still have a lot of great players on this team.

"We have some of the top players in the world so, you can't really underestimate any team in this tournament."

While Saros will have a big job keeping the Americans off the scoreboard, Finland has long been known for playing a very strong team game. They boast arguably the best defensive forward in hockey, Florida Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov, and play a system that creates offense by causing turnovers and counter-attacking.

With the likes of Lehkonen, Barkov, Mikko Rantanen, Patrik Laine, Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen, Roope Hintz, Mikael Granlund and Kaapo Kakko at their disposal, scoring goals should not be an issue for the Finns.

"We're very confident," said forward Anton Lundell of the Florida Panthers. "I know we're probably not ranked No. 1 in the (media), but it hasn't been an issue for us before.

"Sometimes it's fun to try to show how good you are."

-Field Level Media