{"id":462509,"date":"2025-02-17T07:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T12:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=462509"},"modified":"2025-02-16T14:24:48","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T19:24:48","slug":"4-nations-face-off-predictions-united-states-vs-sweden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2025\/02\/17\/4-nations-face-off-predictions-united-states-vs-sweden\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Nations Face-Off Predictions: United States Vs. Sweden"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 4 Nations Face-Off shifts to Boston. After four fun games in Montreal, the tournament moves to the United States for the final three games, including the championship game on Thursday. Our prediction today looks at the Monday night game between the United States and Sweden.<\/span><\/p>\n

4 Nations Face-Off Predictions<\/span><\/h2>\n

United States vs. Sweden<\/span><\/h3>\n

Recent History<\/span><\/h4>\n

The United States and Sweden met in the gold medal game of the <\/span>2024 World Junior Tournament<\/span><\/a>. Behind <\/span>two goals<\/span><\/a> from <\/span>Isaac Howard<\/span><\/a>, the United States cruised to a 6-2 victory to claim the gold. The NHL’s future stars shined at the tournament.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fast forward a year, the United States and Sweden meet once again. This time, today’s NHL stars clash. In addition, both teams enter the game with different goals in mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

United States in the Championship<\/span><\/h4>\n

By a 6-1 win on <\/span>Thursday<\/span><\/a> over Finland and a 3-1 win on <\/span>Saturday<\/span><\/a> over Canada, the United States have clinched a spot in the championship game on Thursday in Boston. Whether they win or lose on Monday will not change that.<\/span><\/p>\n

How the United States approaches their game against Sweden remains to be seen. Will they rest some players? Will they give Connor Hellebuyck<\/a> the day off in preparation for the championship? Or will head coach Mike Sullivan<\/a> stick to what has worked through the first two games? Even if Sullivan chooses the latter option, Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> will not play. The forward, who made his presence known two seconds into Saturday’s game by dropping the gloves with Canada’s Brandon Hagel<\/a>, left early in the third period with an upper-body injury. Tkachuk, however, is <\/span>not concerned about the injury<\/span><\/a>. This suggests he will be good to go for the championship game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sweden is Winless But Still Has a Chance at the Championship<\/span><\/h4>\n

Sweden gave Canada its best effort on <\/span>Wednesday<\/span><\/a>. They rallied from a 3-1 third-period deficit to force overtime before Canada won on a Mitch Marner<\/a> goal. On <\/span>Saturday<\/span><\/a>, Sweden again lost in overtime, this time to Finland.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite a 0-0-2-0 record, Sweden is still in contention for the championship game on Thursday. However, they do need some help. First, they have to beat the United States in regulation. Any loss or going to overtime will eliminate them from the championship. In addition to a regulation win, Sweden needs the Canada\/Finland game to go to overtime. A regulation win by Canada or Finland will eliminate Sweden from contention.<\/span><\/p>\n

Prediction<\/span><\/h4>\n

This is a hard one to make. The United States\/Sweden game will be played on Monday night, while the Canada\/Finland game will be played during the day. As a result, Sweden will know their fate by the time their game begins. In addition, that could change how the United States approaches the game from their perspective.<\/span><\/p>\n

If Canada or Finland win in regulation, the United States may rest some starters in preparation for Thursday. In this scenario, the United States\/Sweden game is meaningless. However, if Sweden still has a chance to reach the championship, the United States may decide to play their regulars to maintain the integrity of the tournament and give their team some extra preparation for Thursday.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a tough choice to make. However, we are going to pick the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

United States wins, 5-2.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Prop Bets<\/span><\/h3>\n

The over\/under is set at 6.5 goals. We are taking the over with seven goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

For prop bets, we are taking defenceman Zach Werenski<\/a> as an anytime goal-scorer. The Michigan native has recorded four assists in the first two games and should find the back of the net on Monday. For Sweden, we are picking forward William Nylander<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Main Photo: Eric Bolte- Imagn Images<\/em><\/p>\n

Please play responsibly. Check for your local rules and age restrictions. Some jurisdictions require ages 21+. Have a gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 4 Nations Face-Off shifts to Boston. After four fun games in Montreal, the tournament moves to the United States for the final three games, including the championship game on Thursday. Our prediction today looks at the Monday night game between the United States and Sweden. 4 Nations Face-Off Predictions United States vs. Sweden Recent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3464,"featured_media":462512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4524,8091],"tags":[7057,701,1102,1799,230],"class_list":["post-462509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl-predictions","category-4-nations-face-off","tag-connor-hellbuyck","tag-matthew-tkachuk","tag-team-sweden","tag-united-states","tag-william-nylander"],"modified_by":"Andrew Willis","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3464"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462509"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462509\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462514,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462509\/revisions\/462514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}