Hockey fans have been craving best-on-best hockey for years and while it’s a valid argument that this tournament should be open to more than four teams, it’s still incredibly exciting to have the best hockey players in the world competing for glory.

Canada is a slight favourite to win on the 4 Nations Face-Off futures board, but there’s a case to be made for all four countries.

Will the Canadians continue their historical success? Has Team USA finally closed the gap? Or can Sweden or Finland make some noise? Let’s take a look.

How to Bet on the 4 Nations Face-Off Hockey Tournament

Tournament winner

When the tournament odds opened, Canada and the U.S. were co-favourites. Canada entering as a very slim favourite really comes down to their historical success in these tournaments.

You have to give a slight edge to Canada’s offensive potential. Of the four nations competing in the tournament, Canada has the top two leading scorers in the NHL in Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid, and you’re talking about a PP1 unit that consists of MacKinnon, McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Sam Reinhart and Cale Makar. That’s a video game lineup.

I still think Canada has a slight edge on paper when it comes to forwards and defencemen, but give props to the United States because they’re a very tiny step behind the Canadians. Team USA has enough depth to have superstar sniper Auston Matthews on the second line and they have both Tkachuk brothers (Matthew and Brady) to provide skill and grit. They also have a clear edge in net for Vezina-favourite Connor Hellebuyck.

Don’t overlook Sweden in this tournament as they’ve compiled a roster that can keep up with Canada and the United States. William Nylander has proven to be an absolute dog in the biggest games for the Toronto Maple Leafs and Linus Ullmark is only two years removed from winning the Veznia Trophy. There’s also ample depth up front with the likes of Nylander, Elias Pettersson, Filip Forsberg, Jesper Bratt, etc. and the back-end is anchored two-time Stanley Cup winner Victor Hedman.

Finland has been bit by the injury bug more than any other team and they enter as the tournament dark horse. The good news is Finland has never been a star-driven program. They have found ways to win through hard work and responsibility, much like the play of captain Aleksander Barkov. Juuse Saros is also capable of being the best goalie on the ice any night and there’s still enough star power for the Finns to upset some teams, especially in such a short tournament.

4 Nations prediction: Canada (+145)

Sure, this might be a homer pick, but I genuinely believe Canada will win this tournament. No one can argue they will have the best players on the ice in every game and with this being a short tournament, the question marks surrounding their goaltending shrink a bit. Canada just needs Jordan Binnington (likely Game 1 starter), Adin Hill, or Sam Montembeault to be hot for a few games and the talent of MacKinnon, McDavid, Makar, etc. will do the rest.

Top goal scorer

There’s only three round robin games before the championship, so the smart play for picking the top goal scorer in the tournament is to take a player from a team you think will be in the final. For me, that’s Canada vs. the United States.

Auston Matthews is the favourite to lead the tournament in goals, followed by Connor McDavid, Sam Reinhart and Nathan MacKinnon.

Matthews scares me as the favourite as I haven’t seen anything in 55 career NHL playoff games that makes me believe he’s a big-game player.

I’m also staying away from McDavid and MacKinnon because they have a tendency to dish the puck when they have adequate skill on their lines, which Canada will have no shortage of.

Reinhart is really tempting, but I think Canada is so deep he won’t get enough opportunities for my liking.

That leaves me to take…

4 Nations prediction: Kyle Connor (+1300)

I think Kyle Connor is tremendous value. He’s slated to play on USA’s top line with Jack Eichel and Matthew Tkachuk and I expect him to be a go-to guy when the bench gets shortened. Connor is slept on playing in Winnipeg. We’re talking about a player who has already scored 30 goals this season and he likely would have finished with 50 goals last season if he didn’t miss almost 20 games due to injury.

Tournament points leader

Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon have a pretty wide gap over the rest of the field to lead the tournament in points. It makes sense, given MacKinnon has led the league in points almost all season and McDavid is an absolute robot who has led the league in points for three of the last four years.

I don’t get why Matthews has the third-shortest odds in this category. As I already said, he’s not a big-game player in my mind and he more of a goal scorer than a point producer. I’d easily take Jack Hughes, Jack Eichel, or Cale Makar in this category ahead of Matthews.

I’m going to do something I normally avoid and take…

4 Nations prediction: Connor McDavid (+600)

I usually hate taking favourites, but I’ve done it twice in three picks for this tournament. It’s a wonder McDavid is even allowed to put on Team Canada’s jersey as he clearly isn’t from this world. The man scored 105 points in a 56-game season, for #$%& sakes! McDavid has the ability to score in bunches and he’ll still play well over 20 minutes a night on a team as deep as Canada. It’s no Stanley Cup, but McDavid is driven to win and he’ll show it in this tournament.