Five New York Rangers ready for matchup in USA-Finland 4 Nations play

Team USA is set to play their heavily anticipated first game of the 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday evening.

New York Ranger Mika Zibanejad played in the first game of the best-on-best tournament on Wednesday evening .with a 4-3 overtime loss for Sweden versus Canada. That leaves Rangers J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck, Adam Fox, Chris Kreider, Mika Zibanejad, and Urho Vaakanainen set to make their debut in the 2025 4 Nations Tournament. This debut is slated for 8:00 p.m. EST in Montreal, Canada.

Here are a few key notes with special emphasis on the Blueshirt players as puck drop approaches.

Key Team USA Notes

The Rangers have the highest number of players on the Team USA roster with four. Fox, Trocheck, Kreider, and Miller are all members of the red, white and blue.

Kreider's role is certainly to be a leader off the ice, especially to the younger players. The Massachusetts native is the oldest member of Team USA. Though, the U.S. actually has the youngest average age roster in this tournament at 28.0 years old, and the heaviest roster, at an average of 203 pounds.

This will be the 11th game the Americans are playing in Montreal during an NHL international tournament. The U.S. won Games 2 and 3 of the 1996 World Cup of Hockey Final in Montreal en route to winning the tournament. Of the 10 previous matchups played in Montreal, seven have come against Canada. The U.S. is 4-4 with two ties in 10 previous NHL international tournament games played in the city. The last time the red, white and blue played Finland in Montreal during an NHL international tournament was a 4-4 round-robin tie in 1981.

Key Team Finland Notes

Urho Vaakanainen serves as the lone Blueshirt on Finland's roster. Though the defenseman is joined by former Ranger Kaapo Kakko — the right wing that was recently traded to Seattle earlier this season.

Not to be overlooked, Team Finland has 29 combined gold medals and championships at international tournaments from players on the roster for this event (Olympics, World Championships, World Cup of Hockey, World Juniors and under-18 World Champ), which is second behind Canada's 31; 14 of those golds came from players winning the World Juniors. Additionally, Finland has medaled in four of the five Olympics that included NHL players, taking bronze in 1998, 2010 and 2014, and silver in 2006.

Series History

The U.S. and Finland have met six previous times in Canada Cup/World Cup of Hockey events, with Team USA owning a 4-1-1 advantage. The most recent meeting between the two teams was in the 2004 World Cup of Hockey with Finland earning a 2-1 win in St. Paul, Minnesota.