Monday LNN: Sanderson, Matinpalo, and Doughty Headed to Four Nations, Tournament Preview, and more!
Links, news, and notes about some injury replacements in the Four Nations Faceoff, a preview of the tournament, and much more!
- The biggest news from Sunday came from Team USA, who announced that Quinn Hughes will not be participating in the Four Nations tournament. While that's bad news for Hughes and USA, it's great news for Ottawa Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson, who is the replacement. Sanderson has been phenomenal over the last few months, and it's cool to see his play be recognized.
- Speaking of replacements, another Senators defenseman, Nikolas Matinpalo, will also be participating in the tournament, but for Team Finland instead. Rasmus Ristolainen won't be playing, which hurts an already thin Finland blueline. That's a great honour for Matinpalo though who has done well in his brief stint in Ottawa.
- Lastly, Drew Doughty has only played six games this season after suffering an injury before the season began, but he'll replace Alex Pietrangelo for Team Canada. He would have surely been on the team if his health wasn't a question mark in December.
- The full schedule, roster, and rules for the Four Nations Faceoff can be found here. Canada will play on Wednesday against Sweden, on Saturday against the USA, and on Monday against Finland, with the final on Thursday.
- If you like goalie mask artwork like myself, artist David Gunnarsson showcased what Jake Oettinger, Kevin Lankinen, Juuse Saros, and Linus Ullmark will be wearing for the tournament. I love Oettinger's otter Statue of Liberty, it's perfect.
- The Four Nations Faceoff obviously doesn't have trades, but some writers at The Athletic ponder...what if you could? This is a pretty interesting exercise where they make some hypothetical international team trades.
- David Perron began playing on the St. Louis Blues in 2009 when Keith Tkachuk was still there. This 2009 photo of Perron with the Tkachuk brothers is hilarious to see, and Sylvain St-Laurent had a chat with him about their long relationship.
- Senators fans will love to read this piece by Eric Engels of Sportsnet who says that it should be time for the Montreal Canadiens to sell. They've lost eight of nine games and have fallen six points out of a playoff spot.
- Nick Kypreos of Sportsnet lists his top names of players who could be traded before the trade deadline, with some interesting depth names that might end up being connected to Ottawa.
- While everyone really only cares about Alexander Ovechkin's goal chase, he's still got an incredible amount of overall points too, and he surpassed Phil Esposito for career points on Sunday with 1,591, ranking 11th all-time.
