Canada goes back to basics in Finland win

BOSTON, Massachusetts — The Canadians were determined to leave zero ambiguity about whether they "had it" after a disappointing start to the Four Nations Face Off. They had no desire to sweat it out. They wanted to render that USA/Sweden nightcap completely meaningless, and so conjured their superpowers to do just that.

Connor McDavid finds space, goal. Nathan MacKinnon finds space, goal. It got a little nervy at the end because Finland, ever pesky, scored three times in the third period, but you can't spot Canada a four-goal lead and expect to win.

So it was a 5-3 final against the Finns. See you guys at Milano Cortina 2026.

"Obviously the start in both games was great," said Cale Makar, who returned to the lineup after an illness held him out of Saturday's Thunderdome. "I just I think we were able to find a way to maintain it in this game, and I think it just every line was working together and we were finding ways to maybe hold onto the puck when we when we need to and stuff like thatc rather than not throwing it away."

Now, to be fair, the Finns made it easy on them early. Urho Vaakainen put a breakout pass right on McDavid's tape, and MacKinnon broke free from Esa Lindell and Henri Jokiharju. It was 2-0 before fans could get too deep into their first beers of the afternoon, and maybe that says more about the quality of defense Finland could bring after all those pre-tournament injuries than what the two most recent NHL MVPs could do against basically anyone (besides the US). But the result is the same, a combination that inevitably proved fatal for the Finns.

"I'm just trying to play the best I can and (Sam Reinhart) I made a great play and sprung me, and I just finished it off," MacKinnon said. lI don't know if Connor's thinking the same, but I'm not trying to be The Guy or anything. 

I'm just trying to play well within the team structure, play a good 200-foot game and managed to put that one in early."

Canada may not be able to lay claim to the head-and-shoulders best roster in international hockey anymore, but the top end of their lineup is maybe as good as they — or anyone else — has ever had it.

Of course, given how much the quality of international hockey rosters have risen in recent years, that means the margins for error are getting thinner, which is why Canada entered today's must-win game against Finland, well, needing the win.

In the end, their overwhelming skill allowed them to open a 2-0 lead less than five minutes into the game, and Canada was never going to chunk a multi-goal lead against a team that seemed unable to keep track of the best players in the world.

"A lot of emotions after last game," MacKinnon, who finished the game with two goals, said. "We knew we had to win this, and most likely regulation, to advance. So yeah, it was a great start and obviously the best player in the league, made an unreal play and, a great screen by (Mark Stone) there as well."

Coming into the tournament, it seemed a lot of people were expecting Canada to be a little more run-and-gun than they have been. All that talent at the top of the roster, the absurdity of the No. 1 power-play unit (which didn't end up getting a ton of time because the refs mostly kept their whistles in their pockets), and the perceived gap between the North American and Nordic rosters had people anticipating goalfests. 

But it took McDavid and MacKinnon until the third game to register their second goals, and Canada entered this game with just four total goals in regulation, and just three at 5-on-5. The odds that a roster this good was going to be held to just five goals on 54 shots always felt pretty low.

"I think just how tight-checking it is, I mean you see you see all the skill and talent and you realize pretty quickly that you gotta fight for all the space that you can get out there," said Sidney Crosby, who finally scored his first goal of the tournament into Finland's empty net. "The guys that are highly skilled are also checking well and in the right places. I think just understanding that you've gotta you gotta fight for those opportunities, and find ways to create."

One of the things Canada coach Jon Cooper talked about before the game is that his team has an identity it is trying to adhere to, but these are all such high-skill guys who are used to trying and succeeding at making dazzling plays more often than not. But that's the NHL, where the opposing roster has a few guys who aren't, y'know, world-class players. Those chances to make something out of nothing, which come so naturally to elite players and are so instinctual to attempt, are now fewer and farther between, not to mention more difficult to actually pull off.

"We have to play the game like how we play the last five minutes of a tie game with five minutes left," Cooper said. "That's how we have to play the entire game, and just stay disciplined, kinda in our process. And like I said, we don't need to manufacture something out of nothing because we've got the guys that will be able to make plays when it comes down to it."

That wasn't always the case tonight, because Finland was giving out freebies and no one wants to turn down a comped lunch, but the difference between this and Saturday was that Canada largely finished those opportunities, and did so with ease.

It had to be hard to get excited and play "up" for the second and third periods just because the game was kind of a foregone conclusion and even as there was nearly a disaster in the closing minutes it really only made the game interesting for a couple of minutes.

"A lot of this game is about puck management, and sometimes it's not as fun to watch" Cooper said. "There's a lot of hard work because much of the game might be working without the puck, but when you put in places and go get it back, you can lean on teams and I think we did that. We didn't do that very well against the US the first game and made some adjustments in it tonight and it worked in our favour."