Colorado's elite forward earned the Hart Memorial Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award in his career-high season. Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar were named among the first six Canadian players to represent Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off. The two will play alongside Sidney Crosby, who spoke about being teammates with his fellow Nova Scotia native. Crosby said he and MacKinnon talked lines on a recent golf trip but played together in the IIHF World Championship in 2015 and the 2024 NHL All-Star Game, so they have a familiarity playing together. "Obviously there's a lot of excitement having the opportunity to represent Canada, you know, best-on-best," Crosby said in a virtual press conference on Friday morning. "It's been a while since we've had the opportunity to do that and obviously having the opportunity to play with him. Yeah, I don't know how the lines are going to shake out but having the chance to play with him at the Worlds in 2015 was a lot of fun and it's been a while since then." The veteran forward has only played with the Avs' young defenseman once, but said he is excited to have the experience. "Look at a guy like Cale — I think he's somebody that, playing against them just knowing how deceptive he is, the way he skates," Crosby said. "That's a guy I played with (at) the All-Star Game there and saw a little glimpse of it, but I'd say he's the guy that comes to mind." Rantanen was chosen to the 2022-23 NHL All-Star team but did not make this past season's team. The 27-year-old Finn achieved his second-best career season in 2023-24 with 104 points. The extent of his international play stems back to TPS Turku of Liiga, the top league in Finland, where he played juniors before being drafted by the Avalanche in 2015. He won a gold medal with Finland at the 2016 World Junior Championships. The NHL announced the format in February to replace the All-Star Game and will take place Feb. 12 - 20. "I mean, as a player, I can only give you a player's perspective and I think for us having this opportunity, knowing that the Olympics is the following year, it's going to be a great product," Crosby said. "I think that guys are excited about it. I think that when you put players like this together ... just the level of play increases, but also the competitiveness as far as Canada, U.S., Sweden, Finland, I think that once you get out there, you see the competition with every game, the intensity rise, and I know looking back to World Cup, it was very much like that." The Bell Centre in Montreal and the TD Garden in Boston will serve as the venues for the event. MORE COLORADO AVALANCHE NEWS Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon wins Hart Trophy and Ted Lindsay Award [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/colorado-avalanche/latest-news/avalanche-forward-nathan-mackinnon-wins-hart-trophy-and-ted-lindsay-award] Colorado's active homegrown top draft picks [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/colorado-avalanche/latest-news/colorados-active-homegrown-top-draft-picks]
