Of the eight Florida Panthers players selected for 4 Nations, three will play in Thursday's final match

The preliminary round of the first ever 4 Nations Face-Off is complete.

Reaching Thursday’s final match are the United States and Canada, sending Sweden and Finland home early after the two Scandinavian squads failed to earn a single victory against either of their North American opponents.

That means out of the eight Florida Panthers players who were selected to participate in 4 Nations, three of them will play for a championship.

They are Sam Bennett and Sam Reinhart for the Canadiens and Matthew Tkachuk for Team USA.

The Florida Sam’s helped Canada take down Finland on Monday at TD Garden 5-3 while Tkachuk sat out the U.S. loss to Sweden Tuesday night.

Reinhart picked up a trio of assists in Canada’s victory, his first points of the tournament.

Afterwards, THN Florida asked him what the experience has been like facing so many of his Panthers teammates.

“It's been fun,” he said. “Once the puck drops, all that goes away. I've seen them in very competitive environments and very big games, and they've been there with me, so I expect them to compete. It brings out the best all of us.”

Through three games, Reinhart has been given a good amount of ice time, which is saying something on a team full of All-Stars.

He is being used in all situations, playing a very similar role to what he’s asked to do for the Panthers.

It makes sense, as Canadian Head Coach Jon Cooper, who also coaches the Tampa Bay Lightning, has an excellent idea of what Reinhart is capable of.

“It's one of those guys with elite brains,” said Cooper. “He may not be the most fleet of foot out there, but he gets there as fast as anybody else because he just knows where to go. He thinks this game out, and what I really like about a lot of players on this team – what did he have last year? (THN Florida: “57 goals”) Yeah, so he has damn near 60 goals, but he does not sacrifice his defensive game. Reinhart's not a cheater, and those are tough traits to have, and for guys, you don't find a lot of them, but guys score that many goals and are that savvy and smart defensively. That kid’s a winner.”

There were similar sentiments expressed regarding Finland captain Sasha Barkov, who also wears the “C” for the Panthers.

While his tournament may be over, Barkov was one of the bright spots on a Finnish squad that fell well short of their goals.

He finished with an assist, nine shots on goal and a plus-three on-ice rating in the three games Finland played, logging power play and shorthanded minutes as well.

Barkov was also a beast in the face-off circle, winning 55.6% of the 79 draws he took at 4 Nations.

His quiet leadership on and off the ice, which has proven to be so crucial to Florida’s success, was just as apparent during his time with Finland.

“It's unbelievable,” said Finland Head Coach Antti Pennanen. “He’s a really great person and one of the best players on this planet. He played against (Auston) Matthews and (Connor) McDavid and (Nathan) MacKinnon and he was really good.”

But now Barkov and his Finnish Panthers teammates – Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen and Niko Mikkola – as well as Sweden blueliner Gus Forsling, will return to South Florida and get back into NHL-mode.

The Cats are expected to be back on the for a formal team practice later this week, but they’ll be without Reinhart, Bennett and American forward Matthew Tkachuk.

Those three…they’ve got one more game in Boston.

Lately, the Panthers have really enjoyed their hockey up there and found quite a bit of success.

For at least one of them, that’s going to continue this week. 

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