Canada's goalie options for 4 Nations less than perfect, but battle tested

With a hard deadline on the horizon, no Canadian goalie has crashed the national team crease conversation in a manner that simply cannot be ignored. So, in the absence of any truly sparkling stats, Team Canada’s best play is to tab pressure-tested goalies and call it a day.

On Wednesday, full rosters for the 4 Nations Face-Off — which runs Feb. 12 to 20 in Boston and Montreal — will be announced. At that point, the dearth of quality Canadian netminders will go from an abstract concept to a concrete reality as three goalies with nary a Vezina Trophy between them will be called upon to fill skates previously occupied by the likes of Carey Price, Martin Brodeur and Grant Fuhr.

Suffice it to say, the names Jordan Binnington, Stuart Skinner and Adin Hill don’t hit anywhere near as hard as those previous three. Still, you’re talking about two Stanley Cup winners in Binnington and Hill, and a guy in Skinner who backstopped a Canadian NHL club to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final just six months ago.

They may not be perfect, but all three goalies have performed under the intense heat of infrared waves and held up well.

In terms of the here and now, Hill and Skinner are both coming off winning performances on the weekend. Hill’s Vegas Golden Knights beat the Winnipeg Jets 4-3 on Friday and he’s actually 4-1-1 with a .924 save percentage in his past half-dozen outings. Skinner, meanwhile, was very strong in Edmonton’s 4-1 win over Colorado that same night, making 27 saves against an Avs lineup featuring two of Canada’s best skaters, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar.

For his part, Binnington took an overtime L against the Flyers. The one goalie who was probably always going to be on this team hasn’t been spectacular this year, but his .901 save percentage in his past 11 outings is not nothing in a league where goalie SPs have been sagging the past couple years as other-worldly shooters pick them apart.

Unfortunately for Canada, no goalie from this country — experienced or not — has pushed back hard enough against those snipers to for sure force his way into the 4 Nations.

Lefty Logan Thompson, coming off some injury-marred years, is probably the closest. The 27-year-old first-year Washington Capital has a .911 save percentage this season and ranks sixth in Moneypuck’s goals saved above expected/60 minutes. The only Canadian ahead of him in either category is Red Wing Cam Talbot, who’s got a .915 save percentage and slots third in goals saved/60 behind only Karel Vejmelka and Lukas Dostal.

Those are strong showings, no doubt, but probably not the two-month heater required to nose onto the national team. Thompson, for what it’s worth, has just 115 total games of NHL experience in his career and only four more post-season affairs to his credit. As for Talbot, he was forced to leave Sunday’s loss to Vancouver with a lower-body injury. Even without knowing the severity of the ailment, it’s easy to see the red flags with a 37-year-old puckstopper who is suddenly fighting an injury concern.

Nobody is here to make the case Binnington, Hill and Skinner are unimpeachable. Far from it. But nobody — not Sam Montembeault in Montreal or Mackenzie Blackwood in San Jose — blockered the competition out of the way to an extent he absolutely must have a spot. Marc-André Fleury — the only Canadian in the league who owns a Vezina — couldn’t pen a fun 40-year-old comeback story.

So, boring as it may be, if you’re team Canada you play it safe, put your faith in three battle-tested tenders and hope two of them trend up in the next couple months before the tournament. Whatever happens, at worst, the moment should not be too big for any of them.

Weekend Takeaways

• As noted, it was not a banner weekend for Talbot and the Red Wings, who are back under .500 following two 5-4 home losses on Friday (to New Jersey) and Sunday (to the Canucks in extra time). Now, with Alex Lyon also dinged up, the Wings must turn to Ville Husso, and that could be a tough scene given the fact Detroit ranks 28^th in expected-goals-for percentage (45.7) in the NHL.

• Not to dump on the Wings further, but Detroit’s decision to move defenceman Jake Walman last summer — ostensibly to create cap space — is starting to look worse by the game. Only seven defencemen had more goals per game than Walman last year, so it’s easy to see why San Jose was happy to pick up the D-man — along with a second-round pick — for future considerations just ahead of the draft. After a 2-2-4 weekend in two wins for the young Sharks, Walman — who is playing over 22 minutes a night in San Jose — is up to 19 points in 22 contests, just two shy of his previous career best of 21 last year in Detroit. Only seven blueliners in the league have a better points-per-game mark than Walman’s 0.86.

• The Flyers, who have won three straight to at least temporarily climb into a playoff spot, are working overtime to get results. After downing Binnington and the Blues 3-2 on rookie Matvei Michkov’s OT winner, Philly has now gone past 60 minutes in eight of its past 12 contests.

• If the puck dropped on the 4 Nations today, the NHL’s top two point-getters would not be at the event. They are Russian Kirill Kaprizov (38 points) and Czechia’s Martin Necas (37).

The Week Ahead

• Connor Bedard, who’s now hit paydirt in two of his past three games, will visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday as Auston Matthews plays his first home game since Halloween.

• Two-time Cup champion Trevor Lewis is set to play his 1,000^th game on Wednesday night when the Kings host the Dallas Stars. Few guys have more firmly entrenched themselves as a reliable role player in the past 15 years than Lewis. The 37-year-old American essentially gets you five-to-nine goals a year while playing about 13 sturdy minutes out there. Stick tap to you, Trevor.

• Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame will induct two guys who won a total of four Cups with the Penguins — Kevin Stevens and Matt Cullen — alongside 2018 Olympic gold medalist Brianna Decker.

• On Thursday, Sabres bench boss Lindy Ruff will coach his 1,800^th NHL game when the Jets visit Buffalo. Early in 2025, Ruff will pass Barry Trotz for third on the all-time games coached list, trailing only Paul Maurice (1,873) and Scotty Bowman (2,141)

• The RFAs who got away — Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway — visit their old team, the Oilers, on Saturday as members of the St. Louis Blues. Broberg played 24:08 in his return to action on Saturday after missing basically all of November with a knee injury. Holloway, meanwhile, is on a serious heater with five points in his past three games while playing on the second line.

Red and White Power Rankings

1. Toronto Maple Leafs (14-7-2) Joseph Woll’s past five games: 5-0-0 with a sparkling .938 save percentage.

2. Winnipeg Jets (18-7-0) Following Sunday’s 3-1 loss in Dallas, the Jets have been held to one goal or fewer in five of their past 10 games.

3. Edmonton Oilers (13-9-2) Can the Oilers, now winners of three straight after Saturday’s triumph in Colorado, use December to surge forward? Following Tuesday’s tilt in Vegas, Edmonton will play eight of nine at home.

4. Vancouver Canucks (13-7-3) Elias Pettersson’s first dozen games this year: 2-3-5. Elias Pettersson’s past 11: 5-11-16.

5. Calgary Flames (12-9-4) The Flames are currently skidding through their second four-game losing streak of the season and have been outscored 11-4 in their past two outings.

6. Ottawa Senators (10-12-2) Ottawa’s unsatisfying results stand in contrast to the great work being done by captain Brady Tkachuk. After a two-goal showing in Sunday’s shootout loss to the Ducks, Tkachuk is basically playing at a 45-goal, 95-point pace.

7. Montreal Canadiens (8-13-3) After another ugly loss in Boston Sunday evening, Cayden Primeau’s .844 save percentage is the worst mark in the league among the 41 goalies with at least 10 appearances this season.