Travis Sanheim of Canada kept a blog throughout the 4 Nations Face-Off, which ended with a 3-2 overtime win by Canada against the United States at TD Garden on Thursday.
In his final entry, the Philadelphia Flyers defenseman writes about the thrill of winning, the clutch ability of Connor McDavid, who scored the winning goal at 8:18 of overtime after some brilliant play from goalie Jordan Binnington to start overtime. He also talked about the celebration afterward and a return to regular-season play on Saturday when his Flyers host the Edmonton Oilers.
That was unreal. Hard to describe. That moment that Connor McDavid put that puck in the net, I am going to remember that moment for the rest of my life. To be a part of this is something so special. Not only to represent your country, but to have the result happen the way it did in overtime against our biggest rival. It’s a dream come true.
I had a perfect view of the goal. I saw the play developing and I had a pretty good instinct it was going to be a goal. Pretty nice play from the corner by Mitch Marner and you give Connor a shot from the slot with nobody contesting it, I was pretty positive it was going to go in the back of the net, and it did.
Obviously a pretty great player, in a big moment, and he comes up clutch. I expected nothing less. There wasn’t a lot of ice for most of the game, so it was a bit shocking. Both teams did a great job of checking, not giving up a whole lot. Teams taking advantage of the chances that they did get. We knew that was how it was going to be. We knew it was going to be like the round-robin game, not a whole lot given up on either side, a really close game.
Jordan Binnington was the game-saver out there. He was incredible. Made multiple key saves on breakdowns and then the best player in the game ends it. I was on the ice for a couple of them and he bailed me out. Made sure to say thank you to him. I just had a feeling that you make that many saves that we would go and reward him and that is what we did.
After we won and we piled onto the ice, it’s really hard to explain the excitement level. To know that it is over, that you reached the goal, that you set in coming here -- and that was to win. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, and it comes down to one shot. It’s just a dream come true to be a part of this and to celebrate and to enjoy everything that comes with it.
When we left the ice, the party started in the locker room. That’s something I have never been a part of, and it was unreal to experience it with those types of guys. I’ve built a lot of really good relationships with a lot of those guys over the past two weeks and to see our dream come true is incredible. This is for the country. We knew we needed to win, and we delivered.
We played two games against the Americans and there were some big hits and some hard games, hard-fought games, close games, games that could have gone either way, each of them. I think that is what everyone signed up for in here. That’s why people tuned in and people showed up. I’m really happy we delivered.
I think there might be some guys in this room that are more tired than me, but I think we are all happy to see it finally end and happy with the result.
It’s weird now, we are going to go back to the NHL season, and we are going to either play against guys or with these guys and have different challenges that way. I think what comes with representing your country and what is at stake, I think it was good for the game.
I followed McDavid in the handshake line -- and that was amazing -- and now I have to defend him on Saturday. I’m not sure I am going to be ready for that.
