In the end, Canada’s superstar finished and America’s did not
Auston Matthews had the 4 Nations on his stick. He fired toward the net, mere inches from lifting his country to victory. Virtually everyone in TD Garden wearing Team USA gear leaped to their feet. They knew it was over.
Except it wasn’t. Canada goaltender Jordan Binnington got just enough of his blocker on Matthews’ grade-A chance, and tens of thousands of American fans had to sit their asses back down.
Just a few minutes later, Canada’s own transcendent hockey star made Team USA pay for failing to finish the job. Cruelly, it was Matthews — a Selke Trophy finalist that has grown his two-way game in recent years — who drifted away from Connor McDavid and watched the puck for just a little half-second. And that was all that teammate Mitch Marner needed to find a wide-open McDavid in the slot, where the best player on the planet did what (arguably) the second-best player couldn’t: deliver the kill shot.
Team USA kept McDavid in check for about 68 minutes. The three-time Hart Trophy winner had only two shots on goal prior to his game-winning score. The USA defense – and Matthews in the center-on-center battle – kept McDavid in front of them and limited a lot of his space to operate. But give the best player in the world a wide-open look in the high-danger area, just one, and he can rip a nation’s heart out.
“I wasn’t great all night, but we just found a way to win,” the ever-taciturn McDavid told reporters after the game. He later added, on the Americans’ defensive effort against him: “It was tight all over, great players all over the ice, playing great defense. I wasn’t great all night, but we just stuck with it, our whole group.”
Team USA head coach Mike Sullivan had his captain’s back, as you’d expect from a good, strong leader.
“He’s just a dynamic player,” Sullivan said, reflecting on his time coaching Matthews for the past two weeks. “I’ve said the last couple days when people ask me about him, I think the thing that has jumped out at me the most is his 200-foot game, his commitment to play defense, to play away from the puck. He has a mature game. He has a game that’s conducive to winning, and he has elite talent.”
Matthews had transformed to more of a playmaker for Team USA in Thursday night’s championship game, logging two assists in defeat. But hockey has a way of coming down to unpredictable bounces and microscopic differences, and that only becomes more of a reality as the talent gets greater and the stakes get higher. Game 7? Olympics? Now the 4 Nations? An inch can decide who touches the trophy.
“It’s a game of inches and that’s what it comes down to,” said Bruins captain and Canada forward Brad Marchand. “We got the saves. You’ve got to give all the credit in the world to Binner [Binnington]. Tonight, we won the game of inches. That’s the tough thing about these games, where it’s a one-off and one-game elimination, very tough to win.”
Matthews came within inches of authoring his own hero story for Team USA. But unfortunately, history will remember him in this tournament as the one who couldn’t close the deal.
And the most painful twist was that his Canadian counterpart was the one that did.
Matt Dolloff is a writer and digital content producer for 98.5 The Sports Hub. Read all of his articles here.
