Connor McDavid, Mattias Ekholm, and Viktor Arvidsson represent their countries in Wednesday's Canada-Sweden matchup.
It's finally here.
For the first time since the fall of 2016, NHLers are playing in a best-on-best international tournament, starting on Wednesday night. While the 4 Nations Face-Off isn't the Olympics or even a proper World Cup, it's still what fans and players have been clamouring for for years.
The Edmonton Oilers are sending three players to the tournament, and they'll all be on the ice for Wednesday's opener between Canada and Sweden. Here's where they'll slot into their nations' lineups.
Connor McDavid, of course, will be Canada's first-line center. Judging by Team Canada's first practice on Monday, he'll be flanked by Sam Reinhart and Mitch Marner, creating a supercharged version of his usual line alongside Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
McDavid is also the lynchpin of what could be the greatest powerplay unit ever assembled, joined by Reinhart, Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon, and Cale Makar. McDavid will also serve alongside Makar as an assistant captain under Crosby.
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This will be McDavid's first time wearing the maple leaf since captaining Team Canada at the 2018 World Championship, where he scored 17 points in 10 games as Canada lost the bronze medal to the United States.
McDavid also won gold at the 2016 World Championships and 2015 World Juniors and captained Team North America at the 2016 World Cup.
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At the other end of the ice, Mattias Ekholm will wear an "A" for Sweden and play next to Erik Karlsson on the second pairing, while surely also being a big part of their penalty kill. Ekholm has represented Sweden at five World Championships, winning gold in 2018, as well as the 2016 World Cup, where he won bronze.
He'll be joined by Oilers teammate and fellow former Nashville Predator Viktor Arvidsson, who's slated to play on Sweden's fourth line with Elias Lindholm and Gustav Nyquist. Arvidsson was also part of that gold-medal-winning squad at the 2018 World Championship, along with eight other players on this year's roster (including Ekholm).
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Though McDavid, Ekholm, and Arvidsson all play together now, the Oilers' captain has plenty of experience against both Swedes. McDavid scored 18 points in 13 games against the Predators when Ekholm and Arvidsson were both there, plus another 15 in 6 against just Ekholm and 34 in 20 regular season and playoff games against Arvidsson's Los Angeles Kings.
Canada and Sweden kick off the 4 Nations Face-Off at 6:00 PM MT at the Bell Centre in Montreal, on Sportsnet.
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