We are just over two months away from the 4 Nations Face-Off between Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States. The tournament will take place in Montreal and Boston for eight days in February.
It’s going to be a tournament that is loaded with NHL talent from across the league and the rosters were recently announced and the Boston Bruins will be represented well in the tournament with four players from three different countries. Who knows, some of them could be matched up in the Championship Game at the TD Garden on Feb. 20.
Four Bruins Selected for 4 Nations Face-Off
The rosters have been released for the tournament and four members of the Bruins will be participating in the eight-day event. First-year Boston forward Elias Lindholm was selected for Sweden’s roster joining a talented group of players.
Bruins captain Brad Marchand, to no one's surprise, was selected for Canada, whose GM just happens to be Boston GM, Don Sweeney. He’ll be joined by Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and others.
Making the United States roster are two Bruins players, defenseman Charlie McAvoy and goaltender Jeremy Swayman. Joining Swayman between the pipes will be Connor Hellbuyck of the Winnipeg Jets and Jake Oettinger of the Dallas Stars.
One player from the Black and Gold who will not be in the tournament is David Pastrnak and he made his feelings known about Czechia not being part of it.
"It's a huge disappointment," said Pastrnak back in February. “I don’t know much I can say. Definitely not happy about it. I understand that it’s a quick turnaround. It’s next year. They probably didn’t have much time to make it a bigger tournament.
"But Czech isn't there. So it's always a lot of players left out, so I'm not gonna watch the tournament, to be honest. So just happy that the Olympics got accepted. Yeah, (it) definitely stings a little bit."
In May, Pastrnak threw shade at the 4 Nations Face-Off after Czechia won the IIHF World Championship with an Instagram post. The Bruins star forward isn’t happy as he’ll be watching, or maybe not watching, from home.