Now that next month’s 4 Nations Face-off is becoming a hot topic, time to stir the pot.
“Guys are going to be out for blood,” predicted Canada’s Brad Marchand, who’ll take a departure from his day job as captain of the Boston Bruins. “We’re not out there as an exhibition match, you’re going to be there to win.”
The tourney is five weeks away and revived rivalries are in the air. Maybe that’s because of Canada’s early exit from this week’s world junior championships or the lack of best-on-best international play for the better part of the past decade.
Marchand facing Auston Matthews of the Leafs on Saturday was seen as a 4 Nations preview, while both players have NHL teammates on competing countries for the U.S., Sweden and Finland.
“There are extremely high expectations,” Marchand said. “You want to make your country and your team proud. You saw it with the (2016) World Cup, it doesn’t matter how quick it’s thrown together. When you put your Canada or U.S. jersey on, whatever it is, you’re going to leave it all at the ice.
“Games will be fast, the best players in the world are going to be out there every shift. Pick (the champion country) out of a hat, they could all win it.”
The games are Feb. 12 –20 at the Bell Centre in Montreal and TD Garden in Boston.
“It’ll be nice not to get booed in Montreal,” Marchand quipped.
PHIL HIM UP
The nomadic NHL career of Philippe Myers had been anything but secure.
But now he can lay down some roots in Toronto after signing a two-year contract extension this week with a chance to be a bigger part of the Leafs defence moving ahead.
Undrafted and having gone through three other NHL teams before choosing Toronto’s minimum wage one-year contract this past summer, Myers endured a long wait before getting full-time ice in early December. He signed a two-year deal Friday at $850,000 a season.
“Grateful to be here,” he said. “I got other offers, but coming here, I knew I’d have to be patient. My goal from camp was make the team and my mindset all year was show up with a good attitude and work your boots off.”
He was in much the same situation as fellow defenceman Simon Benoit at 2023 training camp. Now the 6-foot-5 Myers has joined Benoit and recent additions Chris Tanev and Oliver Ekman-Larsson as part of a heavier Toronto blueline.
“Happy he worked his way up, proved he could play, be physical and reliable,” Benoit said. “You look at the playoffs, like most teams who want to go on long runs and you need those kind of players who can run teams down. That’s where we’re going towards, be a hard team to play against.”
Coach Craig Berube has been impressed with Myers since camp, even though he rarely played him the first two months.
“He plays simple, he’s on the penalty kill and has great size and reach.”
SACCO BACK-O IN T.O.
More than 35 years after the Leafs drafted him from a Massachusetts high school, Joe Sacco came back to Toronto on Saturday as interim head coach of Boston.
A 10-year assistant with the Bruins after coaching Colorado, he replaced Jim Montgomery after the Bruins’ disappointing start and has added a measure of improvement.
Sacco, a fourth-round pick in 1987, spent 60 games as a forward with the Leafs at the start of his NHL career and just missed playing with Berube in his half season here. The latter was part of the 10-player Doug Gilmour trade on Jan. 2, 1992, while Sacco was called up soon after from St. John’s.
“I didn’t imagine (coaching) when I was 21-years-old,” laughed Sacco, who was claimed from Toronto by the Anaheim Ducks in the ‘93 expansion draft, playing there, Washington, Philadelphia and Long Island. “I always enjoyed my three years in Toronto, up and down the organization, and playing in the old Gardens.
“I got to play with Berube in Washington for one year after that.”
LOOSE LEAFS
Sacco’s brother David, a centre, also played four games in Toronto in ‘93-94 … Laval, Que., native Benoit enjoys having another French speaking player around in Myers. “I know his French is different than mine, a lot of slang,” said Benoit. “But he played junior in Rouyn-Noranda a couple of years so his Quebecois is pretty good. He picked a lot up” … Marchand on the B’s never-ending battle with the Leafs: “Definitely our biggest rival at this point. A lot of high-tension games. We usually seem to have different ones built on who we play at playoff time. A few years ago it was Montreal and there’s a lot of blood now with the amount of times we’ve played Toronto and how close we’ve been in the standings together. They’re a different team, they’ve figured out the right way to play and stick up for each other, a different brand of hockey.”
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