Crosby's childhood coach excited for Canada-U.S. rematch at 4 Nations

Paul Mason has coached minor hockey and minor baseball in Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia, for 46 years. He's been fortunate enough to have coached several NHL players, including Sidney Crosby, who is playing for Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off. Paul and his wife, Dana, and Crosby's parents, own Top Shelf Pro Shop at Cole Harbour Place, Crosby's childhood rink. Paul can often be found at the pro shop or on the ice there. His son, Liam, helps him coach and his daughter, Kirsti, coaches ringette at the rink.

In his third update, Mason discusses his emotions during the round-robin loss to the United States and championship-round clincher against Finland as well as his peewee team's trip to Quebec City to play in the Quebec International Pee-Wee Hockey Tournament, a competition in which Crosby played in more than 25 years ago. He also talks about the excitement for Canada's rematch against the United States in the championship game at TD Garden on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, Disney+, SN, TVAS).

It's been a crazy few days here.

The buildup to the game between Canada and the United States round-robin game on Saturday was an exciting, yet tense, feeling that I haven't felt in a long time while watching hockey. My wife and I watched it with friends and family, which added to the intensity.

The explosive start with the three fights completely solidified the legitimacy of this rivalry. The tense matchup continued to unfold as we watched and hoped that one of our local boys would tie the game or maybe even score the game-winner.

As we know, it didn't happen. In the aftermath, there was a feeling of being dejected, but there was little time for it.

After the game ended Saturday, I knew I had four hours to rest before the bus that was taking the pee-wee team that I coach left for a trip to the fabled international pee-wee tournament in Quebec City.

The Canada-USA game was the main topic in the chatter through the early-morning hours. The kids were buzzing with excitement at what had played out across 60 minutes of amazing hockey; the adults mourned the loss for Canada, something that hasn't happened much lately in best-on-best hockey.

Talk about the possibility of Canada changing up its forward lines and trying to figure out the tie-breaking situation going into the Monday doubleheader dominated the conversation on the long bus ride.

There was a confidence that Canada could defeat Finland but we all know that anything could happen in a one-game scenario.

We missed some of the game, taking the kids to play a friendly game of shinny outdoors in Quebec against the peewee team from Colorado. The Crosby-MacKinnon Cup, if you will.

There were no refs, players from the teams were mixed together and the kids played joyously. The winning team getting the cup.

We watched the early part of the Finland game on the way to the outdoor rink. As we piled off the bus to play, Canada led 4-0 and we were quite confident.

As the players started getting dressed and we were getting ready for the game, my son had the game streaming on his phone and suddenly there was concern. It was 4-2 and we quickly circled around him to watch. You could feel the tension in the room increase significantly when Finland made it 4-3.

Now, all focus was on the small screen as the game became a matter of survival for Canada. A loud cheer arose when Sidney Crosby scored the empty-net goal to seal passage to the championship game against the United States on Thursday.

Our Cole Harbour pride continued to shine. Nathan was named as the Player of the Game with his two-goal performance after the 5-3 win. Crosby had a goal and an assist.

Sid and Nate, being the class hockey players they are, sent a message to the young players from Cole Harbour and Colorado wishing them all the best and encouraging them to enjoy the Quebec experience.

An interesting question that I posed to the Colorado Avalanche staff was to ask the young Colorado players how they felt about the 4 Nations Face-Off, considering MacKinnon and Cale Makar are playing for Canada against the United States. They sent me videos of the players responses and it was shocking because all of the young players interviewed, were cheering for Team Canada either because of family roots, their favorite hometown players were on Canada or they felt Canada had all the "studs."

I can assure you the Cole Harbour peewee AA and AAA players and their families will be cheering for Canada and "the Nova Scotia studs" when we have our watch party here in Quebec on Thursday.

GO CANADA GO!