Team USA heads into 4 Nations championship game with key injuries to watch
Team USA is a little banged up heading into Thursday night’s championship showdown with Team Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off.
Locally, the status of Bruins defenseman Charlie McAvoy is at the top of everyone’s mind. USA head coach Mike Sullivan confirmed the reporting of 98.5 The Sports Hub’s own Ty Anderson after the game, when he confirmed that McAvoy has an upper-body injury that kept him out of Monday night’s loss to Sweden. (UPDATE: The Bruins announced that McAvoy will be out for the championship game due to his upper-body injury.)
The same can be said for arguably the two best players on Team USA, Auston Matthews and Brady Tkachuk. Matthews is also dealing with an upper body injury, but Sullivan described him as “nicked up.”
Tkachuk, meanwhile, exited Monday’s game not long after appearing to get hurt sliding and crashing into the net post. Sullivan told reporters after the game that the Ottawa Senators captain is dealing with a lower body injury. Brady’s brother, Matthew Tkachuk, missed Monday’s game with a lower-body injury of his own.
Sullivan did say that, while the team hadn’t gotten a fresh update on Brady Tkachuk’s injury by the time of his press conference, he doesn’t anticipate the injury to be a major issue.
We are talking about the 4 Nations championship, not a random NHL game in the middle of the regular season. So, all these injuries would have to be the serious, debilitating kind to actually keep these guys out of the lineup on Thursday. McAvoy and the Tkachuks, especially, are essential to the Americans’ blend of skill and physicality that helped them beat Canada in their first matchup at Bell Centre in Montreal.
Team USA and Team Canada square off in the hotly anticipated 4 Nations championship game on Thursday night at TD Garden, with puck drop scheduled for 8 p.m. ET.
Matt Dolloff is a writer and digital content producer for 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read all of his articles here.
