It’s time.
USA vs. Canada drop the puck in one of, if not the most highly anticipated hockey games in recent history with the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off championship game tonight at TD Garden in Boston.
Their first meeting in the round robin was a match to remember, where there were three fights in the first nine seconds, including USA forward Matthew Tkachuk and Canada forward Brandon Hagel dropping the gloves right after the opening faceoff that sent the Bell Centre crowd in Montreal into a frenzy on Saturday night.
After trailing 1-0 early in the first period, the United States would go on to score three unanswered goals and come away with a 3-1 victory.
As expected, viewership skyrocketed in the must-see match of the best-on-best tournament so far, with 10.1 million people in North America tuning into the heated rivalry, including 4.4 million viewers and peaked at 5.2 million in the United States alone.
Even with it being a whopping 479 percent increase from the last time USA and Canada met on the international stage in the World Cup of Hockey in 2016, expect the numbers to be even greater tonight.
With both nations and the hockey world anxiously awaiting to see how it will go the second time around, here’s how to watch, stream and more for USA vs. Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game.
TV: ESPN
The USA vs Canada championship bout will be broadcast on ESPN.
United States vs Canada 4 Nations Face-Off must-see rematch in the title game starts at 8 p.m. at TD Garden.
Streaming options for the USA vs Canada 4 Nations Face-Off championship game include Fubo and ESPN+.
Puck line: USA -1.5 (+235), Canada +1.5 (-300)
Over/Under: Over 5.5 goals (+108), Under 5.5 goals (-132)
Moneyline: USA (-111), Canada (-108)
Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook in New Jersey as of Thursday, Feb. 20.
Connor Hellebuyck (USA): +250
Connor McDavid (Canada): +290
Sidney Crosby (Canada): +490
Nathan MacKinnon (Canada): 6/1 (+600)
Zach Werenski (USA): 14/1 (+1400)
Jack Eichel (USA) and Jake Guentzel (USA): 15/1 (+1500)
Matthew Tkachuk (USA): 17/1 (+1700)
Brady Tkachuk (USA): 22/1 (+2200)
Dylan Larkin (USA): 65/1 (+6500)
Jordan Binnington (Canada): 90/1 (+9000)
Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook in New Jersey as of Thursday, Feb. 20.
It really doesn’t get any better than this.
The two teams everybody wanted to see in the title match of the best-on-best tournament comes to fruition.
While the United States got the best of Canada on home ice, there’s more injury concerns on the U.S. side than there is for their neighbors up north.
Defenseman Charlie McAvoy has already been ruled out, and both Tkachuk brothers — Matthew and Brady — are dealing with something but are expected to play through it.
I mentioned in my preview in the first meeting that goaltending would be the x-factor and it was, with Hellebuyck standing tall and not allowing a single goal after the one to Connor McDavid less than six minutes into the game, while Binnington was solid in his own right, but allowed a “softie” to Guentzel to tie the game near the halfway point of the first period.
In their next game, Canada scored early and often against Finland but allowed Finland to get within one goal late in the third period before Sidney Crosby found the empty net to give Canada the insurance goal they needed to advance to the rematch against the U.S.
After falling short to Canada in Vancouver in the 2010 Winter Olympics gold medal game, the United States finally get its revenge nearly 15 years later in the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, defeating their rivals on home ice in front of a raucous TD Garden crowd that gets sent into a frenzy with USA’s championship performance.
Hellebuyck logs another 25-plus save performance and makes multiple key stops in net on Canada’s best playmakers throughout the night to win MVP of the tournament.
Game prediction: USA 4, Canada 2
MVP pick: Hellebuyck (+250)
USA: 6 points (2-0-0-1)
Canada: 5 points (1-1-0-1)
Sweden: 5 points (1-0-2-0)
Finland: 2 points (0-1-0-2)
Each country will play one game against the other three countries during the round robin stage. Teams will earn three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime/shootout win and one point for if they lose in the overtime/shootout. The two teams with the best records will face off against one other in the championship game.
Games will be played under NHL rules, with the lone exception being that overtime will now feature 10 minutes of 3-on-3 sudden death throughout the round robin portion unlike the NHL’s five minutes. If it’s still tied after 10 minutes, the game will then go to a shootout. During the championship game, overtime is just as it is in NHL playoff overtime: 5-on-5 hockey for 20-minute periods with the next team that scores a goal wins the game.
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