United States vs. Finland 4 Nations Face-Off Prediction and Preview:
Here are my best bets for tonight’s United States vs. Finland matchup in the 4 Nations Face-Off.
United States (-360, 5.5) vs Finland
8 p.m. ET
Team USA rightfully is an overwhelming favorite in tonight’s game versus Finland. While Team USA is better equipped to handle the loss of defenseman Quinn Hughes (Vancouver), Finland doesn’t have the depth to compensate for the loss of its top two defensemen, Miro Heiskanen (Dallas) and Rasmus Ristolainen (Philadelphia). If this was your typical NHL game, a coach would do his best to find a way to match his third pairing on defense against the opposition’s fourth line. But tonight, USA’s fourth line will likely include Vincent Trocheck (NY Rangers), Dylan Larkin (Detroit) and Brock Nelson (NY Islanders), three players that are or have been a part of their NHL team’s top line. It’s going to be a matchup that the USA should be able to exploit.
Finland has offensive weapons with the likes of Aleksander Barkov (Florida), Mikko Rantanen (Carolina), Roope Hintz (Dallas), but USA top to bottom is just too deep. I just don’t see how Finland will be able to shut down the likes of Jack Eichel (Vegas), Auston Matthews (Toronto), Kyle Connor (Winnipeg), Jack Hughes (New Jersey) and Matthew Tkachuk (Florida), and that doesn’t include the bottom half of the forward group that have all scored at least 20 goals once in their career. It’s been a tough NHL season already for Finland goalie, Juuse Saros (Nashville). He could be left with a case of whiplash after tonight’s game.
Team USA is going with Connor Hellebuyck for tonight’s game. It’s been an MVP-type season for the Winnipeg Jets goalie, who has almost as many shutouts (six) as regulation losses (seven) this season. The biggest issue for Hellebuyck is exorcising the demons of when games matter most. His last two years in the playoffs have been disastrous. His goals against average (5.23, 3.44) and save percentage (.870, .886) in each of those playoffs have been a major disappointment. If Team USA gets playoff Hellebuyck then Finland has a chance for an upset.
A couple of player props that I will take a shot at tonight. I do like Jack Eichel for anytime goal. Eichel has five goals in seven career games against Juuse Saros. Auston Matthews has four goals in four games against Saros and Jack Hughes has lit the lamp three times against the Finnish netminder. My best bet for tonight will be the USA Team Total Over 3.5 goals.
NHL Predictions: USA Team Total Over 3.5 (-150) – 2 units
Auston Matthews anytime goal (+150) – ¼ unit
Jack Eichel anytime goal (+320) – ¼ unit
Jack Hughes anytime goal (+190) – ¼ unit
Kyle Connor anytime goal (+230) – ¼ unit
