U.S. defenseman Jaccob Slavin said that the key to shutting down Canada's dangerous power play is a simple one: "Stay out of the box."
The U.S. and Canada will face off for the first time in the 4 Nations Face-Off on Saturday at 8 p.m. here in Montreal. Each team won its first game of the tournament, with the U.S. putting together a 6-1 rout of Finland on Thursday and Canada taking down Sweden 4-3 in overtime on Wednesday.
If there was one takeaway to be had from Canada's win, it's just how unreal their power play can look. They only had one opportunity on the man advantage in the win -- William Nylander high-sticked Nathan MacKinnon seconds into the game, and on came the first unit of Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Sam Reinhart and Cale Makar. It took all of 12 seconds of power-play time for Canada to strike.
McDavid found Crosby below the right circle, and Crosby unleashed a no-look backhand pass through the legs of Swedish defenseman Mattias Ekholm to MacKinnon for the primary assist:
USA's Dylan Larkin echoed a similar sentiment as Slavin's, saying that the biggest key is to be staying "disciplined" and not giving them those opportunities.
"It was pretty good last night, we kept our emotions in check," Larkin told me. "It's going to be a whole new level tomorrow. You can't kill four or five penalties. You've got to stay out of the box and try to keep the game even."
But if avoiding penalties was that easy, everyone would do it. It's unrealistic to expect the U.S. to stay out of the box completely. When Canada does get a power play, Slavin said that sticking to their structure is going to be key.
"There's a lot of talent, a lot of weapons on that power play," Slavin added. "We've just got to take away what we can."
Part of the challenge, obviously, is that every single player on that unit is a legitimate threat.
"It's hard to key on any one aspect of the group," Mike Sullivan told me of Canada's power play. ""They have threats in all positions. We've got to just make sure that we're predictable for one another. We've tried to instill certain foundations of our penalty kill -- in zone, off the face offs, the forechecks up the ice, the entries, some of the critical aspects of killing that's important for success. We just have to make sure that we're on the same page and we're locked in. We're going to have to win face offs, we're going to have to win puck battles. We're going to have to get clears. If we can make the entries difficult for them and potentially limit their zone time, that goes a long way to helping us have success."
If the U.S. can find that success against Canada's power play, that'll go a long way to helping them come out on top in Saturday's rivalry game. And success in that game will go a long way toward earning a spot in next week's championship game.
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Taylor Haase
1:46 pm - 02.14.2025MontrealU.S. preparing for dangerous Canada power play
U.S. defenseman Jaccob Slavin said that the key to shutting down Canada's dangerous power play is a simple one: "Stay out of the box."
The U.S. and Canada will face off for the first time in the 4 Nations Face-Off on Saturday at 8 p.m. here in Montreal. Each team won its first game of the tournament, with the U.S. putting together a 6-1 rout of Finland on Thursday and Canada taking down Sweden 4-3 in overtime on Wednesday.
If there was one takeaway to be had from Canada's win, it's just how unreal their power play can look. They only had one opportunity on the man advantage in the win -- William Nylander high-sticked Nathan MacKinnon seconds into the game, and on came the first unit of Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Sam Reinhart and Cale Makar. It took all of 12 seconds of power-play time for Canada to strike.
McDavid found Crosby below the right circle, and Crosby unleashed a no-look backhand pass through the legs of Swedish defenseman Mattias Ekholm to MacKinnon for the primary assist:
USA's Dylan Larkin echoed a similar sentiment as Slavin's, saying that the biggest key is to be staying "disciplined" and not giving them those opportunities.
"It was pretty good last night, we kept our emotions in check," Larkin told me. "It's going to be a whole new level tomorrow. You can't kill four or five penalties. You've got to stay out of the box and try to keep the game even."
But if avoiding penalties was that easy, everyone would do it. It's unrealistic to expect the U.S. to stay out of the box completely. When Canada does get a power play, Slavin said that sticking to their structure is going to be key.
"There's a lot of talent, a lot of weapons on that power play," Slavin added. "We've just got to take away what we can."
Part of the challenge, obviously, is that every single player on that unit is a legitimate threat.
"It's hard to key on any one aspect of the group," Mike Sullivan told me of Canada's power play. ""They have threats in all positions. We've got to just make sure that we're predictable for one another. We've tried to instill certain foundations of our penalty kill -- in zone, off the face offs, the forechecks up the ice, the entries, some of the critical aspects of killing that's important for success. We just have to make sure that we're on the same page and we're locked in. We're going to have to win face offs, we're going to have to win puck battles. We're going to have to get clears. If we can make the entries difficult for them and potentially limit their zone time, that goes a long way to helping us have success."
If the U.S. can find that success against Canada's power play, that'll go a long way to helping them come out on top in Saturday's rivalry game. And success in that game will go a long way toward earning a spot in next week's championship game.
Want to participate in our comments?
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Become a member, and enjoy premium benefits! Make your voice heard on the Steelers, Penguins and Pirates, and hear right back from tens of thousands of fellow Pittsburgh sports fans worldwide! Plus, access all our premium content, including Dejan Kovacevic columns, Friday Insider, daily Live Qs with the staff, more! And yeah, that's right, no ads at all!
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