Best on best hockey is back!

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For the first time in nine years, we finally saw best-on-best hockey. Boy, was it a treat seeing Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, and Connor McDavid on the same ice representing Canada. It was a beautiful sight to see. The last time we saw best-on-best hockey at the international stage was in 2016 at the World Cup of Hockey. There’s a generation of kids who have never even seen best-on-best hockey. I gotta say, I appreciate it a lot more after not having it for so long.

Team Canada’s lineup is much different than it was back in 2016. The only returning members from the 2016 squad are Sidney Crosby, Brad Marchand, and Drew Doughty. While it is kind of weird not seeing Team Canada without players like Jonathan Toews, Shea Weber, and Carey Price, I’ve got to say, seeing this new generation of players representing Canada had me feeling as patriotic as ever. I won’t lie, it was weird cheering for Connor McDavid and cheering against Elias Pettersson, but it felt nice to not be scared watching one of his end-to-end rushes and instead be cheering for him to score. It’s not something I want to get used to, it feels weird,unless maybe he was wearing a Canucks jersey.

The atmosphere at yesterday’s game was electric. The Bell Centre hasn’t been buzzing like that since the 2014 playoffs. I thought it was so cool seeing all the fans of different teams come together to cheer on our home and native land. As the tournament goes on and the games get more meaningful, the building will bring more and more energy. Even though every game won’t be in Canada, I expect all the games to have the same electric environment.

Yesterday was just a small sample size of what this team can be, but what it did show us was how lethal that powerplay really is. McDavid, Crosby, MacKinnon, Sam Reinhart, and Cale Makar. I think teams felt a shiver go down their spine just reading that. Unfortunately, for Sweden, they had to face it after William Nylander high-sticked Nathan MacKinnon. Canada immediately made them pay. Crosby made a beautiful behind-the-back pass to MacKinnon for Canada’s first goal. It almost made me shed a tear.

The peak of last night was the three-on-three overtime. The moment we saw MacKinnon, Makar, and McDavid on the ice, every household in Canada knew that they were going to witness greatness. I think seeing those three players on the ice together in three-on-three overtime was one of the reasons people wanted to see this tournament so badly. Unfortunately, they didn’t score, but Mitch Marner scored off of Crosby’s third assist of the game. Crosby improved to 26-0 as Team Canada’s captain, which is absurd. He is looking to make it 27-0 on Saturday when Canada faces the United States.

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