Zizing ‘Em Up: Weber, Roenick like U.S. at 4 Nations Face-Off

NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger has been covering the NHL regularly since 1999. Today he puts together some notes and quotes from Hockey Hall of Fame weekend in his column, "Zizing 'Em Up.”

CANADA’S WEBER THINKS U.S. SHOULD BE FAVORED

TORONTO -- When it comes to international hockey, Shea Weber might be the real Captain Canada.

At least in one aspect anyway.

Fans up here north of the border surely would object to that statement, claiming it’s Sidney Crosby who holds that title. After all, the Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia native scored the gold medal-winning goal for Canada at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, then helped Canada to the title again four years later at the Sochi Olympics.

Having said that, did you know that Weber, with 12 points (five goals, seven assists) outscored Crosby, with 10 points (five goals, five assists), in their 13-game Olympic careers, which encompassed those two championship tournaments?

Weber, for one, didn’t.

“I had no idea,” Weber said Friday, shortly after receiving his Hockey Hall of Fame ring as part of the Class of 2024.

He laughed.

“I can’t wait to tell Sid that,” he said jokingly.

Moments later, the 39-year-old said something that will come as no joke to his fellow Canadians.

In a nutshell, he concurred with fellow inductee Jeremy Roenick, a native of Boston, that the United States should be favored in the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off best-on-best tournament, which also features Canada, Finland and Sweden, from Feb. 12-20.

“Ya, ya, I probably agree,” he said. “I mean, they’ve got a lot of young talent. And you look at the teams, all the players in the League now, they’re so skilled and fast now.

“I think the biggest thing will be which team can come together in a short little tournament like that and play like a team. I think that’s the biggest challenge going forward.”

Weber, one of the fiercest competitors of his time, said he’s thrilled to see best-on-best hockey return for the first time since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

“I’m excited for it,” he said. “It should be that way, right? It’s what you want to see, it’s what the fans want to see, the best players in each country against the best. I think the fans will be excited for it.

“It will be interesting to see who wins.”

Roenick said he feels the United States has the talent to have the best odds to do it.

“We are a superpower as a hockey team, as a hockey nation, and back in the ‘80s, we weren't,” Roenick said.

The intangibles to get over the finish line, well, that’s another story.

“When you put together of bunch of real, highly talented guys together for a tournament like this, there’s not a lot of time to develop chemistry and an identity, right?” he said. “Are they going to be a team that puts a lot of points on a board? Are they going to be a team that’s stingy to play against? I mean, there’s some serious stars on that team but it’s very hard. It’s how quickly they jell.

“Are they going to play more of a grit game like a Canadian team, that in-your-face type of game? That’s the one thing you always wonder about the U.S., is how gritty, how tough they can actually play. You never have to worry about that with a Canadian team, at least in the past.”

Weber, a rugged defenseman with one of the hardest shots in recent memory, goes into the Hall of Fame after accruing 589 points (224 goals, 365 assists) in 1,038 games with the Nashville Predators and Montreal Canadiens from 2005-2021.

Roenick, a smooth-skating forward, had 1,216 points (513 goals, 703 assists) in 1,363 games with the Chicago Blackhawks, Phoenix Coyotes, Philadelphia Flyers, Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks from 1988-2009. He represented the United States at the 1998 Nagano Olympics and 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics.

THE PREDS CONNECTION

David Poile was overcome with sentimentality.

There he was, addressing the crowd gathered at The Great Hall at the Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2024, all the while standing in front of the plaque of his father Norman “Bud” Poile, who was inducted in 1990 as a Builder, just like his son.

At the same time, sitting in front of him was Weber, who in 2016 was traded by Poile, then the Predators general manager, to the Canadiens for defenseman P.K. Subban.

“It stuck with me for a long time,” Weber admitted.

Now, both have let bygones be bygones.

“I didn’t wake up one morning saying, ‘Hey, it’s time to trade Shea Weber,’” Poile said. “We just hadn’t had much playoff success, and it was time to do something.

“It’s so neat that Shea will be the first Hall of Fame inductee to go in as a Predator. And to go in as part of the same class, it means a lot.”

Weber agrees.

“He’s the guy that drafted me,” he said. “You don’t forget something like that.”

MATTHEWS’ LEGACY?

When all is said and done, Roenick said he believes Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews will be the all-time leading goal-scorer among players born in the United States.

Mike Modano holds that mark with 561 goals. Matthews, just entering his prime at 27 years old, has 373.

There is a caveat to Roenick’s statement.

When asked about Matthews’ eventual legacy, Roenick said a lack of Stanley Cup Playoff success will play into it, like it or not. The Maple Leafs have won just one postseason series since Matthews was selected No. 1 by Toronto in the 2016 NHL Draft.

“Everybody kind of gets judged by how you play at the biggest time of the year,” Roenick said. “I think that’s why [Keith Tkachuk] isn’t in the Hall. He has the numbers but I’m not sure his teams ever made it out of the first round.

“Us as stars, in those times, we’re going to get the credit when we win but we’re also going to get pointed out when we lose. And Auston’s got to remember that, especially playing here. He’s only one guy and he’s only as good as the team around him. But it would not be good for him to go through a career winning one round.

“It will definitely put an asterisk on his career. It has already. And it means something in the Hall here, because they look at everything to get into this place.”

QUOTE/UNQUOTE

“He had the ability to strip the puck from you when you think you had time and space. He got me a couple of times. I mean, most skilled players aren’t that good defensively, right? And he was. He was unbelievable defensively with the ability to make you look foolish with the puck.”

-- Detroit Red Wings forward Patrick Kane on Class of 2024 inductee Pavel Datsyuk, a Red Wings alumnus who gave Kane fits during his days with the Chicago Blackhawks