SIMMONS: Perfect ending awaits as Canada will meet USA for 4 Nations championship

This is how it was meant to be. For the National Hockey League. For the game of hockey. For the biggest names and the biggest stars who play.

This is how it was meant to be. The best now playing the best for the championship of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.

Team Canada vs. Team USA Thursday night: Jon Cooper vs. Mike Sullivan. Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon vs. Auston Matthews and Jack Eichel.

Some of the matchups are even and obvious. Some, like having a goalie equal to American Connor Hellebuyck or having brothers who bring what Matthew and Brady Tkachuk bring are rather one-sided. Some like having a third wheel like Sidney Crosby or a first defenceman like Cale Makar are not so easily designated.

But that’s what makes this so special. The tournament that began without expectations. The tournament that even the most ardent of hockey fans wondered about the validity of. There is no reason to wonder anymore.

No matter what happens Thursday night this is the best thing the NHL has done in years. The best event outside the Stanley Cup final. The best mid-season event. The first chance to showcase McDavid and MacKinnon and all the great dancers throughout the NHL.

Team Canada had to beat Team Finland in regulation time on Monday afternoon and they had the game easily in place, and then they didn’t. And then the goaltender was pulled three different times with Finland scoring twice in the final minutes. And then Crosby crashed into almost Finnish hero Mikael Granlund, regained his feet the way few players can, regained the puck that was knocked towards him by Sam Reinhart and then scored the empty-net goal that meant Canada won 5-3 and would play Thursday night against the United States in the one-game finale.

It’s typical, really, the way things work out. Who made the play to score the first goal in the tournament a few nights back? That was Crosby. And who made the last play that ensured Canada the win Monday? That was Crosby. Even if sometimes he looks a touch slow, or a touch old, which he is, this is the kind of thing Crosby does and always has done while wearing the Team Canada jersey.

Before the game even began, the pressure was intensely on the Canadians against Team Finland. They had to win and had to do it without overtime to assure themselves a place in the final. The coach, Cooper, had to find a way to get his roster back in place emotionally and hockey wise after losing to Team USA in Montreal.

He believed the regularly doubted Jordan Binnington was the right call to start in goal and the rest of us just held our breath and watched. That decision, like almost all of Cooper’s decisions Monday, proved to be correct, especially in the early minutes of the game where Binnington made two or three saves that could have opened the scoring and really tightened the Canadian collars.

But more than anything else, Cooper had to find a way to regenerate the lineup that didn’t produce a whole lot of offence against Team USA. He moved his centre from Tampa, Brayden Point, and the veteran Mark Stone on the wing alongside McDavid. He kept the Nova Scotians, MacKinnon and Crosby, together — although he limited some of Crosby’s ice — and had Reinhart move from McDavid’s line. In making those moves, he took Mitch Marner off the McDavid line, after playing 19 so-so minutes against Team USA and moved him alongside the Tampa forwards Anthony Cirelli and Brandon Hagel. Marner played almost seven minutes less against Finland than he played against Team USA. Only one forward played less than the Maple Leafs star.

How did it all work out? MacKinnon scored twice, McDavid once, Point once, Crosby once. Reinhart had three assists. McDavid, MacKinnon and Crosby each had two points.

The lineup changes — what tournament coaches do best at the highest of moments — were executed rather wonderfully by Cooper and his Canadian roster.

It was not dissimilar to the move United States coach Sullivan made in his team’s first game, when he shifted the Tkachuk brothers on a line together with Eichel against Finland. The brothers combined for four of the six U.S. scores.

The gamers doing what they do best in the biggest of games.

This championship matchup has — or had — nothing to do with dropping the gloves three times in nine seconds in start the first Canada-U.S. game. It has nothing to do with Canada playing without Makar, whose absence become more obvious with Shea Theodore out of the lineup and Alex Pietrangelo choosing not to play the event.

The United States doesn’t have Quinn Hughes, who alongside Makar, are the best two defenceman in the NHL, but they do have Charlie McAvoy and Zach Werenski and a shutdown pair of Jaccob Slavin and Brock Faber that is clearly most solid in this tournament.

Canada has the best individual players in McDavid, MacKinnon and Makar. The U.S. has the best individual goaltender in Hellebuyck. Both teams with great coaches. The U.S. has tremendous strength up the middle, offensively and defensively, in Matthews and Eichel. The U.S. has more depth on defence. Canada has more explosion up front. You can go back and forth on this.

There was little open ice when the two teams played on Saturday night in what was essentially a one-goal game in Montreal. There will likely be little open ice when they play for the championship on Thursday.

The only mistake the NHL made in scheduling the tournament. We have to wait until Thursday to watch this championship game. Don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the final now.

ssimmons@postmedia.com
twitter.com/simmonssteve