With Team Canada's 5-3 win over Team Finland punching their ticket to the 4 Nations Face-off championship game, it also means coach and captain will be rivals one more time before the regular season resumes.

Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Mike Sullivan and captain Sidney Crosby will compete against one another for the 4 Nations crown on Thursday in Boston. Sullivan is at the helm for Team USA - who already clinched a berth to the title game with a 3-1 round robin win over Canada on Saturday - while Crosby, whose five points are tied with Team USA defenseman Zach Werenski for the tournament lead, is captaining Team Canada.

The two are no strangers to each other, as Sullivan has been coaching the Penguins since December 2015. Sullivan and Crosby talked about how weird it was going to be to face one another in this tournament, but both quickly adapted in Saturday's game.

“When you get in these types of events - I’m sure [Crosby] would answer the question the same way I’m going to answer it - he’s going to do everything in his power to try to win,” Sullivan said. “That’s just the world that we live in. It doesn’t diminish for one second how I feel about Sid as a person or a player. I have a tremendous amount of respect for him and what he’s accomplished in the game and what he represents for our sport." 

And they understand what's at stake, too, as more than 4.4 million people in the U.S. watched Saturday's rivalry matchup - which is higher viewership than any non-Stanley Cup Final game since 2019. 

The world is watching. Both nations are watching. So they realize how much an international title would mean for their respective colors, and they are going to do everything in their power to propel their respective teams to victory.

"I’m going to do everything as the coach of the U.S. team to try to put our guys in positions to be successful," Sullivan said. "And we’re going to do everything we can to try to help our group win.”

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