TIG Roundtable: Who will win at Four Nations?

The Four Nations Cup kicks off tomorrow in Saskatoon. We at The Ice Garden decided to make some predictions for the short tournament. Let us know how you think the tournament will shake out in the comments or in a FanPost.

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Welcome to the 2018 Four Nations Cup!

Eleni Demestihas: My guess is Canada will bounce back and take gold because they’ve retained more veterans than Team USA and added just enough speed to stay on pace.

Mike Murphy: It’s hard to bet against Team USA given their success in major tournaments in the last Olympic cycle. USA hasn’t finished in second place in a major tournament since the 2014 Olympics in Sochi and the 2014 Four Nations Cup. It will be interesting to see if things change with Reagan Carey out of the picture and with Bob Corkum behind the bench, but the USWNT are still the favorites to win gold.

I’m most interested in seeing how some of the new faces on Canada will play and whether or not Finland can steal a game and take another step towards joining the North American countries as a hockey superpower. I predict Mélodie Daoust to be the MVP of the tournament. She was sensational at the Olympics and has been unreal for Les Canadiennes de Montréal thus far in the CWHL.

Meredith Foster: My predictions are pretty noncontroversial: USA for gold, Canada for silver, Finland for bronze, and Sweden for fourth place.

That said, Finland goes into this season with their eyes on the prize of the Women’s World Championships on home ice in April. They’ve got the skill, the talent, and the drive to surprise. Taking silver at Four Nations for the third time in their history at the tournament would be a great follow-up to their Olympic bronze at PyeongChang.

Mike Lopez: I see the US over Canada in a tight gold medal game. Don’t think we’ll go to a shootout but overtime is definitely possible. As for the rest, I see Finland edging Sweden for the bronze.

Hannah Bevis: Because this is a shorter tournament, Finland will have an opportunity to pull off an upset and get into the gold medal game. It will be close, but USA’s fire power will outmatch Noora Räty in net. Canada will top Sweden for the bronze.

Nathan Vaughan: I won’t be going to out of the box for my predictions.  USA for the win, Canada, a close second then Finland for third well above Sweden in fourth.

USA and Canada are still a step above the rest. While Noora Räty can steal a game, the question is does she have enough support.  Sweden is still recovering from the ill effects of a disastrous coach.  I won’t be surprised if USA and Canada are reversed though.

Sydney Kuntz: Sweden loses all prelims but has fun while doing it. In the Nov. 7 USA v Canada game, Szabados finally has a chance to reclaim her honor and meets Maddie Rooney at center ice, where they duke it out in a battle to the death. Caitrin Lonergan scores five times while everyone else is watching the fight, so USA wins but goes to the gold medal game against Finland with a severely diminished roster, because Szabados shows no mercy. Finland wins gold.

Michelle Jay: I’m generally Team Chaos, so I think Finland will make it into the top two (which I’m pretty sure the opposite of what I said on Top Shelf). I think the US will get bronze with Canada striking gold. The home nation’s veteran power will propel them. Finland will get silver and Sweden will take fourth.