Mika Zibanejad has been the story of the New York Rangers underperformers for a while now, but his Four Nations tournament is interesting. Mika only played two games, as he dealt with the flu in the final game of Sweden's tournament. Still, ultimately, that didn't matter since even with the Swedish victory over Team USA, they had no hope of progressing after Canada beat Finland in regulation to secure a rematch with the Stars and Stripes in Boston.
ZIBANEJAD OPENS THE SCORING FOR SWEDEN 🇸🇪 pic.twitter.com/wTfmReTgoS
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) February 15, 2025
Mika's goal opened the scoring in the European half of that memorable international rivalry night. We all think about the three fights that kicked off the USA-Canada game, but Sweden and Finland had their grudge match several hours earlier. Zibanejad opened the scoring in that game after the Finns turned the puck over in front of their net, and Zibanejad's shot will still find the back of the net if you leave him alone in front.
Outside of that one break, Zibanejad just underperformed. That was a common theme among the Swedish centermen. No one was playing up to the level expected of them by their nation. Sweden's nepotistic center core had Zibanejad, Elias Pettersson, and Elias Lindholm, and they combined for 1 point, the goal Zibanejad had. That ultimately sunk a good Sweden team in this tournament, and now they are pondering what might have been.
Mika will now return to the New York Rangers ahead of the resumption of the regular season on Saturday when the Rangers take on the Sabres. Zibanejad will once again become a talking point ahead of that game as we continue to ponder his best position. Is he a center or a winger? The Rangers will look to find a balance among their star players ahead of the run-in for the rest of this season.