4 NATIONS FACE-OFF

[Doc Holliday]

Team USA has announced that Charlie McAvoy will not be able to play Thursday. Therefore they’re flying in the league’s 2nd best defenceman Quinn Hughes to replace him. Hughes had bowed out of the tournament due to injury. Now he feels healthy again & his presence will be a blessing for Team USA & will allow him to play with one of his brothers again!

This is similar to Canada placing a call to Thomas Harley after Cale Makar went down. Harley had never been expected to ever get a call & nearly didn’t. Their first call went to Chris Tanev who had to decline since he was with his family at the airport on his way to the Bahamas when he received the call. Harley played extremely well in his two games.

One of my sources who’s currently at the tournament in Boston just told me that he’s heard that one more of the players currently injured won’t play but he’s yet to find out which of the American players it is.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Team USA has announced that Charlie McAvoy will not be able to play Thursday. Therefore they’re flying in the league’s 2nd best defenceman Quinn Hughes to replace him. Hughes had bowed out of the tournament due to injury. Now he feels healthy again & his presence will be a blessing for Team USA & will allow him to play with one of his brothers again!

This is similar to Canada placing a call to Thomas Harley after Cale Makar went down. Harley had never been expected to ever get a call & nearly didn’t. Their first call went to Chris Tanev who had to decline since he was with his family at the airport on his way to the Bahamas when he received the call. Harley played extremely well in his two games.

One of my sources who’s currently at the tournament in Boston just told me that he’s heard that one more of the players currently injured won’t play but he’s yet to find out which of the American players it is.

McAvoy being out was confirmed by his father in law and the USA is bringing in a replacement defenseman.

Team USA's McAvoy to miss 4 Nations title game

United States defenseman Charlie McAvoy will miss the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game Thursday.

www.espn.com

 

[EagerBeaver]

Quinn Hughes being added as McAvoy replacement is now confirmed:

USA Adding Quinn Hughes As Extra For 4 Nations Championship

The United States may have reigning Norris Trophy winner Quinn Hughes available for Thursday's 4 Nations Face-Off championship against Canada, head …

www.prohockeyrumors.com

Matthews and the Tkachuk Brothers Are All Expected to Play per the above.

 

[gaby]

That's good news.......so both teams wil have their full assets...and the best team will win....can't wait for this one...

 

[Doc Holliday]

That's good news.......so both teams wil have their full assets...and the best team will win....can't wait for this one...

Hold on. I just learned that Quinn Hughes may not be allowed to play since he may not be considered as being an emergency replacement since Jake Sanderson, who replaced McAvoy yesterday, is available. The NHL is currently looking into the matter. Jon Cooper mentioned that it would be great for hockey if Hughes played however he wasn’t sure it’d be within the rules since he was kept off the roster prior to the start of the tournament due to an injury & was replaced by another player.

 

[EagerBeaver]

I am hearing that Jake Sanderson was not feeling good after yesterday's game, apparently he had some bad food. Anyway, with Sanderson out, Hughes is in:

"Quinn Hughes Is Coming": Canada Thought They Got Lucky With Charlie McAvoy Missing The 4 Nations Final. Think Again, Bozos

Derek Cain. Getty Images.Let's rewind the clock back to February 22, 1980. A couple weeks prior to the United States squaring off against the Soviet Union in the medal round of the 1980 Winter Olympi...

www.barstoolsports.com

 

[Cap'tain Fantastic]

I am hearing that Jake Sanderson was not feeling good after yesterday's game, apparently he had some bad food. Anyway, with Sanderson out, Hughes is in:

Team USA will have to show solid proof that they lost a second defense man for Hugues to get the ok to play. The rules are very strict and clear when it comes to add a player to the original roster.

 

[Doc Holliday]

I am hearing that Jake Sanderson was not feeling good after yesterday's game, apparently he had some bad food. Anyway, with Sanderson out, Hughes is in:

"Quinn Hughes Is Coming": Canada Thought They Got Lucky With Charlie McAvoy Missing The 4 Nations Final. Think Again, Bozos

Derek Cain. Getty Images.Let's rewind the clock back to February 22, 1980. A couple weeks prior to the United States squaring off against the Soviet Union in the medal round of the 1980 Winter Olympi...

www.barstoolsports.com

Fitting that Sanderson suddenly shows up lame!

 

[Doc Holliday]

Team USA will have to show solid proof that they lost a second defense man for Hugues to get the ok to play. The rules are very strict and clear when it comes to add a player to the original roster.

I agree. Team Canada might as well do the same & get Tom Wilson & Arber Xekaj to fly in to Boston!

 

[Doc Holliday]

Your thoughts?

 

[Doc Holliday]

My buddy Elliott Friedman just posted that Quinn Hughes is currently practicing with the Canucks in Vancouver & will not travel to Boston unless he’s guaranteed that he’ll play Thursday. He stated that the Canucks have a game Saturday & it would be ridiculous for him to travel to Boston & then travel to Vegas if he can’t even be allowed to play. Stay tuned.

Note: Friedman noted that he was wearing a no-contact jersey at practice today. He may not even be healthy enough to play.

By the way i’m hearing that McAvoy’s in the hospital due to an infected laceration he suffered. My guess is that team doctors urgently sent him to hospital yesterday for fear he may be showing symptoms of septic shock.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Update re: Quinn Hughes availability for tomorrow night’s game. It’s still up in the air & we’ll find out more later today. What i’m hearing is that everyone (including Canada) would like to see him in the lineup. The don’t want to hear any whining from Americans if Hughes isn’t allowed to bend the rules & play. Especially if Canada wins they don’t want to hear Americans whining for the next couple of years that they lost because Canada had Cale Makar while they didn’t have Quinn Hughes in their lineup. The problem is that prior to the tournamemt the NHLPA & the NHL got together & implemented the rules & procedures to follow in the tournament. Maybe next time they should allow more players on the roster but it’s possible they tried to but one side was against it. The bigger problem is that even if Quinn Hughes gets the green light to play (and maybe he has already) he stated that he’s not going to Boston if it means taking the spot of a player who’s been with the team from day 1 (like Jake Sanderson). Hard to argue with this. So basically it appears that it’ll be up to Quinn Hughes if he plays tomorrow night. Team USA should get his younger brother Jack to lobby him into coaxing Quinn to be more selfish & come & join the team & represent his country! Lol

 

[EagerBeaver]

Update re: Quinn Hughes availability for tomorrow night’s game. It’s still up in the air & we’ll find out more later today. What i’m hearing is that everyone (including Canada) would like to see him in the lineup. The don’t want to hear any whining from Americans if Hughes isn’t allowed to bend the rules & play. Especially if Canada wins they don’t want to hear Americans whining for the next couple of years that they lost because Canada had Cale Makar while they didn’t have Quinn Hughes in their lineup. The problem is that prior to the tournamemt the NHLPA & the NHL got together & implemented the rules & procedures to follow in the tournament. Maybe next time they should allow more players on the roster but it’s possible they tried to but one side was against it. The bigger problem is that even if Quinn Hughes gets the green light to play (and maybe he has already) he stated that he’s not going to Boston if it means taking the spot of a player who’s been with the team from day 1 (like Jake Sanderson). Hard to argue with this. So basically it appears that it’ll be up to Quinn Hughes if he plays tomorrow night. Team USA should get his younger brother Jack to lobby him into coaxing Quinn to be more selfish & come & join the team & represent his country! Lol

You are over- complicating this. The rules say Hughes can replace any of the 6 defensemen who isn't healthy, not just Sanderson. Team USA will perform rigorous physical exams on all 6 and unless all 6 are tip-top and 100% healthy, one of them will be deactivated and Hughes plays. This is common sense application of the rules. Team USA is not required to play an unhealthy defenseman because Canada is whining about Hughes possibly replacing him. They will physical exam all 6 guys and we will see if they are all healthy. My guess is one or maybe even two are playing hurt. Hughes will very likely play. Unless somehow all 6 of these guys are 100% healthy.

 

[Doc Holliday]

You are over- complicating this. The rules say Hughes can replace any of the 6 defensemen who isn't healthy, not just Sanderson. Team USA will perform rigorous physical exams on all 6 and unless all 6 are tip-top and 100% healthy, one of them will be deactivated and Hughes plays. This is common sense application of the rules. Team USA is not required to play an unhealthy defenseman because Canada is whining about Hughes possibly replacing him. They will physical exam all 6 guys and we will see if they are all healthy. My guess is one or maybe even two are playing hurt. Hughes will very likely play. Unless somehow all 6 of these guys are 100% healthy.

Actually you are the one who’s wrong about this. Hughes isn’t on the roster & can only be allowed to play if USA ends up two defencemen short due to injury or illness. That’s how Thomas Harley was allowed to play for Canada. Shea Theodore got hurt in their first game & was ruled out for several weeks due to a wrist injury. Then Cale Makar was too ill to play & since Canada was short of two defencemen that’s why they were allowed to recruit a non- roster player. They wanted Leafs’ Chris Tanev but he was on his way to the Bahamas with his loved ones. So they turned to young Thomas Harley from Dallas & he accepted & played in two until Makar was healthy enough to play.

The way the rules & guidelines were set up prior to the tournament each team was allowed to carry 1 spare defenceman in case of injury or illness to one of their starters. Theodore went down in game 1 so his spot was taken by the spare. Then when Makar went down they were short of one defenceman so they started looking around for a replacement. So with McAvoy out his spot would automatically be taken by Jake Sanderson. That’s because he was listed as their spare defenceman on the roster. Quinn Hughes was originally supposed to be on the roster however he chose to not be part of the tournament becuase he had been battling an injury for the past couple of Canucks games. They still could have added him in case he felt better later but they chose not to & chose to go with Jake Sanderson instead as the last defenceman added to the roster. That’s on them.

If you’re allowed to make up the rules as you feel like nothing would prevent Canada to recruit Tom Wilson, Mark Schiefle, John Tavares or Chris Tanev to play for them tomorrow night. But rules are rules & maybe the next time there is such a tournament they might decide to male the rules looser & have the opportunity to add more players to the rosters. But this is not the case in this particular tournament.

By the way Canada never whined about Hughes playing. They actually lobbyied for them to let him play. They want to face the best players in the world because for many of them they may never get that opportunity again. And they probably would rather face Quinn Hughes than Charlie McAvoy because Chuck also plays a physical game & is a bery good offensive defenceman while Hughes is basically a ballerina out there & despises the physical stuff.

Anyways Hughes had clearly stated he wouldn’t travel to Boston & take up a regular’s spot because it would be very unfair to that player having been on the roster from day 1. I credit Hughes for being this considerate since many other players would be as selfish as fans like you are & think it’s okay to just come in & take over a loyal player’s spot. I actually will become a Quinn Hughes fan after hearing this. By the way Hughes never got medical clearance to play so it’s become a non-issue. I had a feeling this might be the case since yesterday at practice he was wearing a no-contact jersey & had yet to be medically cleared to play. Team USA also said there’s a flu bug going around the team & they will be looking at getting a few non-rosters to come to Boston in case some of the other roster players can’t play.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Hughes

Anyways Hughes had clearly stated he wouldn’t travel to Boston & take up a regular’s spot because it would be very unfair to that player having been on the roster from day 1. I credit Hughes for being this considerate since many other players would be as selfish as fans like you are & think it’s okay to just come in & take over a loyal player’s spot. I actually will become a Quinn Hughes fan after hearing this. By the way Hughes never got medical clearance to play so it’s become a non-issue. I had a feeling this might be the case since yesterday at practice he was wearing a no-contact jersey & had yet to be medically cleared to play. Team USA also said there’s a flu bug going around the team & they will be looking at getting a few non-rosters to come to Boston in case some of the other roster players can’t play.

Hughes isn't going to Boston only because he was not medically cleared:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1892310941309563370

 

[Doc Holliday]

Update:
With Quinn Hughes still not medically cleared to play & his unwillingness to travel coast to coast if he wasn’t 100% guaranteed to play since it would also mean rushing to fly back to Vegas for his next game Saturday Team USA has announced that they invited centre Tage Thompson & defenceman Brett Pesce to come to Boston & join the team in case so,emof the roster players are unable to play tomorrow.

Also: my contact in Boston has just texted me that he heard that Auston Matthews may also miss the game if his current injury isn’t better by tomorrow. No news on the Tkachuks but Charlie McAvoy is definitely out with an infection to a wound he suffered against Finland.

 

[Doc Holliday]

Hughes

Hughes isn't going to Boston only because he was not medically cleared:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1892310941309563370

True. My buddy Eliott Friedman also had mentioned there was a strong chance he wouldn’t have travelled to Boston even had he been medically cleared for reasons I previously mentioned.

 

[EagerBeaver]

By the way the illness going around is either SARS, or a SARS like upper respiratory virus. I myself had it the first week of February. I was out for an entire week, fever, chills, machine gun like violent coughing spasms, malaise, loss of appetite and mild nausea. It was awful, worse than Covid. Almost went to the ER. They gave me Codeine and Guanefsin, Budesonide Inhaler, Prednisone taper, mucinex, and told me to drink fluids. It took 2 weeks to get rid of it. Totally sucked. My doctor told me he thinks it was SARS. I tested negative for Covid and Flu but didn't SARS test, and didn't get the vaccine. Definitely get the vaccine !!!!!

 

[Doc Holliday]

I’m guessing we’ll likely see giant Tage Thompson in the lineup tomorow & Pesce likely will be kept out. As for Canada everyone seems to be a go except for Shea Theodore, of course. It should be a good one. Probably not as memorable as their first game but still. I believe the way that first game started will be remembered dor years to come. I’m curious who Canada will start. Will they put McDavid, Point & Stone on for the opening faceoff or the Crosby line? I’m curious how USA would retaliate considering they have the last line change. Should be interesting!

 

[Cap'tain Fantastic]

Probably not as memorable as their first game but still.

I disagree, I believe the final will be the most interesting and spectacular game of the entire tournament, as it should be.