Welcome to Instant Reaction — 4 Nations Face-Off edition! Typically, we give our Instant Reaction to <a class="text-accent" href="https://canucksarmy.com/combinations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vancouver Canucks</a> games, but since those aren’t happening right now, we thought we’d do the same for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
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All of the excitement for this game pretty was quickly sucked out of this game after the result of the morning game. Team USA had already punched their ticket to the final, and Team Sweden had been eliminated after Team Canada&#8217;s win, making this match a mean-nothing game. Well, to everybody except Canucks fans.
All eyes shift to see if there will be any fireworks between Elias Pettersson and JT Miller. We&#8217;ll see if anything happens throughout the game.
The Americans clearly built off that momentum from the incredible National anthem and wanted to give the fans something to cheer about.
With the game holding no meaning for tournament standings, the Americans rested Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, Charlie McAvoy and Connor Hellebuyck. And one of the players replacing them made his presence felt early in this game.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
🇺🇸 USA GOAL 🇺🇸
Chris Kreider opens the scoring for the US! 
🎥: Sportsnet | NHL<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sweden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Sweden</a> <a href="https://t.co/bodIrgCTdd">pic.twitter.com/bodIrgCTdd</a>
&mdash; Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyFaceoff/status/1891659620684308932?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Chris Kreider went from out of the lineup to the top line with Brady Tkachuk and Jack Eichel.
1-0 USA.
To keep momentum high, you knew Brady Tkachuk was going to get the crowd even more into it, especially for his first game representing his country on home soil. Tkachuk made his presence felt, knocking two Swedes over in a matter of just a few seconds.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Brady Tkachuk is throwing his body around early in the first period! 
🎥: Sportsnet | NHL<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sweden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Sweden</a> <a href="https://t.co/gd1DIytEKR">pic.twitter.com/gd1DIytEKR</a>
&mdash; Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyFaceoff/status/1891660371485724715?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Shortly after the goal, Elias Pettersson had an offensive zone shift and ended up turning the puck over. The play went the other way, where Filip Forsberg couldn&#8217;t maintain possession of the puck, which resulted in Dylan Larkin shooting it right where the post meets the crossbar. This could have been a Pettersson offensive turnover that ended up in the back of the net the other way.
Sweden managed to keep the game within striking distance throughout the following 10 minutes after Kreider&#8217;s goal. And strike back they did.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
🇸🇪 SWEDEN GOAL 🇸🇪
Gustav Nyquist ties the game for Sweden! 
🎥: Sportsnet | NHL<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sweden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Sweden</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USA</a> <a href="https://t.co/1MZNgT9fIR">pic.twitter.com/1MZNgT9fIR</a>
&mdash; Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyFaceoff/status/1891665706418094176?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
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After Joel Eriksson Ek stripped his Minnesota Wild teammate Matthew Boldy, Viktor Arvidsson picked up the puck and passed it to Erik Karlsson along the wing. Karlsson takes a shot toward the net that gets tipped by Gustav Nyquist and squeaks through Jake Oettinger to tie the game up.
Tied 1-1.
The tie was broken five minutes later off the stick of Jesper Bratt.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
🇸🇪 SWEDEN GOAL 🇸🇪
Jesper Bratt scores in the final minute of the first period to put Sweden up 2-1! 
🎥: Sportsnet | NHL<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sweden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Sweden</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USA</a> <a href="https://t.co/39DMwrJKKc">pic.twitter.com/39DMwrJKKc</a>
&mdash; Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyFaceoff/status/1891668707010621471?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Nylander intercepts the puck in the neutral zone with a ton of space in front of him. He goes for a skate, and right when the Americans take away his space, Nylander makes a swift pass to Bratt in the slot area. Bratt shows patience by waiting until he gets behind the screen of two players and fires a wrister past Oettinger and into the top right corner.
2-1 Sweden.
Injuries started to flood for the Americans. Vincent Trocheck left the first period but returned for the second. Brady Tkachuk went awkwardly into the post, finished the period, but did not return for the second period and was quickly ruled out. This led to the entire second period seeing constant line changes.
The second had plenty of scoring chances both ways, with the shots finishing 9-8 for Sweden. But with no goals to show for it.
Jack Eichel was buzzing throughout the second. He had a blistering shot that audibly rang off the post and followed that up with another one-time shot a few seconds later on the same power play. But Zach Werenski has really stolen the show. He had three shots on goal in the first five minutes of the game, and after two periods, he&#8217;s up to six shots.
Newcomer Leo Carlsson looked like he had some spunk in this period. You could tell the 20-year-old was eager to get his first taste of best-on-best hockey. He was confidently dangling through the offensive zone, made some creative passes and registered a shot on goal. Carlsson went from out of the lineup to top-line minutes between Bratt and Nylander, and the kid hasn&#8217;t looked out of place.
The wires crossed here a little bit for Brock Nelson as he pushes over Swedish netminder and division rival Samuel Ersson.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Brock Nelson shoves Samuel Ersson and Sweden is not happy about it.
🎥: Sportsnet | NHL<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/USA?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#USA</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sweden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Sweden</a> <a href="https://t.co/4giK7rOKod">pic.twitter.com/4giK7rOKod</a>
&mdash; Daily Faceoff (@DailyFaceoff) <a href="https://twitter.com/DailyFaceoff/status/1891677525685707028?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Jack Eichel had himself a first minute of the third period. He sprung himself on a mini-breakaway and nailed the post. The Americans held the zone, Eichel got the puck back, and he nailed his second post of the shift – although this was much less threatening.
The Swedes were sent to the power play after some 23-on-23 violence as Adam Fox cross-checked Lucas Raymond. Pettersson had probably his best shift of the game on the ensuing power play.
Pettersson picked up a poor clearing attempt in the high slot, sold shot and passed off to Filip Forberg, whose shot went narrowly wide. He was then set up in his usual spot on the right half-wall, where he called for the pass from Victor Hedman and looked for a shot-pass for the Swede in front of the net.
By no means has this been an encouraging tournament for Pettersson; however, seeing him have a little confidence and call for the pass with the calibre of players on the ice with him was nice to see.
USA had a power play opportunity where they registered x shots. However, their best chance in the period was when Kyle Connor sprung Brock Nelson on a breakaway.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Sam Ersson gets just enough of Brock Nelson’s breakaway attempt 🇸🇪 <a href="https://t.co/w0LMZHAr8T">pic.twitter.com/w0LMZHAr8T</a>
&mdash; SleeperNHL (@SleeperNHL) <a href="https://twitter.com/SleeperNHL/status/1891692322712150412?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Samuel Ersson has had himself a game. After allowing a goal on the second shot he faced. He shut the door, stopping the following 28 in a row up until this point. I, for one, did not believe he was going to get a start in this tournament. And I certainly didn&#8217;t expect him to play this well against the Americans. Sure, they have a few players out of the lineup, but they are still a team constructed of the best American skaters in the NHL.
Both goaltenders would shut the door in the final two frames, with Sweden walking away with the 2-1 victory.
<h2>CAs Player of the Game</h2>
Team Sweden &#8211; Samuel Ersson
Ersson earned the second star of the game, but he was undoubtedly the Swede&#8217;s best player. The Philadelphia Flyers goaltender stopped 31 of 32 USA shots to steal the American&#8217;s perfect tournament from them.
Team USA &#8211; Zach Werenski
Werenski was one of the most noticeable defencemen on the ice for either team. He recorded an assist to tie Sidney Crosby for the tournament lead with five points, adding a game-high six shots on goal.
<h2>Takeaways</h2>
&#8211; This tournament for Pettersson wasn&#8217;t what Canucks fans had hoped for. He finished the tournament point-less, registering just two shots on goal in three games, seeing his minutes decrease each game. Game 1 &#8211; 16:32 TOI. Game 2 &#8211; 14:10 TOI. Game 3 &#8211; 9:54 TOI. Keep in mind, this was a game where the Swedes were playing without two of their top-line forwards, Mika Zibanejad and Rickard Rakell. Let&#8217;s hope the fact he was able to step away from Vancouver and spend some time with his fellow countrymen did enough to spark a nice second half to the regular season.
&#8211; There really isn&#8217;t much to take away from the USA side as we approach the final game. They were missing so many of their main contributors to injuries and just resting for Thursday night. However, Zach Weresnki is a damn good consolation prize if they&#8217;re missing Quinn Hughes.
&#8211; All eyes now turn to Thursday night for a rematch of one of the best games of the tournament: Canada vs. USA for gold.
What was your instant reaction to tonight&#8217;s game? Let us know in the comments below!
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Welcome to Instant Reaction — 4 Nations Face-Off edition! Typically, we give our Instant Reaction to <a class="text-accent" href="https://canucksarmy.com/combinations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Vancouver Canucks</a> games, but since those aren’t happening right now, we thought we’d do the same for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
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All of the excitement for this game pretty was quickly sucked out of this game after the result of the morning game. Team USA had already punched their ticket to the final, and Team Sweden had been eliminated after Team Canada's win, making this match a mean-nothing game. Well, to everybody except Canucks fans.

All eyes shift to see if there will be any fireworks between Elias Pettersson and JT Miller. We'll see if anything happens throughout the game.

The Americans clearly built off that momentum from the incredible National anthem and wanted to give the fans something to cheer about.

With the game holding no meaning for tournament standings, the Americans rested Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, Charlie McAvoy and Connor Hellebuyck. And one of the players replacing them made his presence felt early in this game.

https://twitter.com/DailyFaceoff/status/1891659620684308932

Chris Kreider went from out of the lineup to the top line with Brady Tkachuk and Jack Eichel.

1-0 USA.

To keep momentum high, you knew Brady Tkachuk was going to get the crowd even more into it, especially for his first game representing his country on home soil. Tkachuk made his presence felt, knocking two Swedes over in a matter of just a few seconds.

https://twitter.com/DailyFaceoff/status/1891660371485724715

Shortly after the goal, Elias Pettersson had an offensive zone shift and ended up turning the puck over. The play went the other way, where Filip Forsberg couldn't maintain possession of the puck, which resulted in Dylan Larkin shooting it right where the post meets the crossbar. This could have been a Pettersson offensive turnover that ended up in the back of the net the other way.

Sweden managed to keep the game within striking distance throughout the following 10 minutes after Kreider's goal. And strike back they did.

https://twitter.com/DailyFaceoff/status/1891665706418094176

After Joel Eriksson Ek stripped his Minnesota Wild teammate Matthew Boldy, Viktor Arvidsson picked up the puck and passed it to Erik Karlsson along the wing. Karlsson takes a shot toward the net that gets tipped by Gustav Nyquist and squeaks through Jake Oettinger to tie the game up.

Tied 1-1.

The tie was broken five minutes later off the stick of Jesper Bratt.

https://twitter.com/DailyFaceoff/status/1891668707010621471

Nylander intercepts the puck in the neutral zone with a ton of space in front of him. He goes for a skate, and right when the Americans take away his space, Nylander makes a swift pass to Bratt in the slot area. Bratt shows patience by waiting until he gets behind the screen of two players and fires a wrister past Oettinger and into the top right corner.

2-1 Sweden.

Injuries started to flood for the Americans. Vincent Trocheck left the first period but returned for the second. Brady Tkachuk went awkwardly into the post, finished the period, but did not return for the second period and was quickly ruled out. This led to the entire second period seeing constant line changes.

The second had plenty of scoring chances both ways, with the shots finishing 9-8 for Sweden. But with no goals to show for it.

Jack Eichel was buzzing throughout the second. He had a blistering shot that audibly rang off the post and followed that up with another one-time shot a few seconds later on the same power play. But Zach Werenski has really stolen the show. He had three shots on goal in the first five minutes of the game, and after two periods, he's up to six shots.

Newcomer Leo Carlsson looked like he had some spunk in this period. You could tell the 20-year-old was eager to get his first taste of best-on-best hockey. He was confidently dangling through the offensive zone, made some creative passes and registered a shot on goal. Carlsson went from out of the lineup to top-line minutes between Bratt and Nylander, and the kid hasn't looked out of place.

The wires crossed here a little bit for Brock Nelson as he pushes over Swedish netminder and division rival Samuel Ersson.

https://twitter.com/DailyFaceoff/status/1891677525685707028

Jack Eichel had himself a first minute of the third period. He sprung himself on a mini-breakaway and nailed the post. The Americans held the zone, Eichel got the puck back, and he nailed his second post of the shift – although this was much less threatening.

The Swedes were sent to the power play after some 23-on-23 violence as Adam Fox cross-checked Lucas Raymond. Pettersson had probably his best shift of the game on the ensuing power play.

Pettersson picked up a poor clearing attempt in the high slot, sold shot and passed off to Filip Forberg, whose shot went narrowly wide. He was then set up in his usual spot on the right half-wall, where he called for the pass from Victor Hedman and looked for a shot-pass for the Swede in front of the net.

By no means has this been an encouraging tournament for Pettersson; however, seeing him have a little confidence and call for the pass with the calibre of players on the ice with him was nice to see.

USA had a power play opportunity where they registered x shots. However, their best chance in the period was when Kyle Connor sprung Brock Nelson on a breakaway.

https://twitter.com/SleeperNHL/status/1891692322712150412

Samuel Ersson has had himself a game. After allowing a goal on the second shot he faced. He shut the door, stopping the following 28 in a row up until this point. I, for one, did not believe he was going to get a start in this tournament. And I certainly didn't expect him to play this well against the Americans. Sure, they have a few players out of the lineup, but they are still a team constructed of the best American skaters in the NHL.

Both goaltenders would shut the door in the final two frames, with Sweden walking away with the 2-1 victory.
<h2>CAs Player of the Game</h2>
Team Sweden - Samuel Ersson

Ersson earned the second star of the game, but he was undoubtedly the Swede's best player. The Philadelphia Flyers goaltender stopped 31 of 32 USA shots to steal the American's perfect tournament from them.

Team USA - Zach Werenski

Werenski was one of the most noticeable defencemen on the ice for either team. He recorded an assist to tie Sidney Crosby for the tournament lead with five points, adding a game-high six shots on goal.
<h2>Takeaways</h2>
- This tournament for Pettersson wasn't what Canucks fans had hoped for. He finished the tournament point-less, registering just two shots on goal in three games, seeing his minutes decrease each game. Game 1 - 16:32 TOI. Game 2 - 14:10 TOI. Game 3 - 9:54 TOI. Keep in mind, this was a game where the Swedes were playing without two of their top-line forwards, Mika Zibanejad and Rickard Rakell. Let's hope the fact he was able to step away from Vancouver and spend some time with his fellow countrymen did enough to spark a nice second half to the regular season.

- There really isn't much to take away from the USA side as we approach the final game. They were missing so many of their main contributors to injuries and just resting for Thursday night. However, Zach Weresnki is a damn good consolation prize if they're missing Quinn Hughes.

- All eyes now turn to Thursday night for a rematch of one of the best games of the tournament: Canada vs. USA for gold.

What was your instant reaction to tonight's game? Let us know in the comments below!

Sponsored by bet365
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