Welcome back to NHL Notebook — the series here at CanucksArmy where we deliver you news and notes from around the National Hockey League — oftentimes through a Vancouver Canucks-tinted lens!
The Vancouver Canucks recently wrapped up their six-game road trip against the Minnesota Wild in what was a thrilling overtime loss, with the extra frame having action on both ends of the ice. Vancouver returns home to Rogers Arena after earning nine of a possible 12 points on the road trip and kicking off a six-game home stand, starting Friday, December 6th, against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
While we watch the clock waiting for more Canucks hockey, there were a few big news pieces that dropped on Wednesday: The 4 Nations Face-off rosters were announced, and TNT had a hilarious segment featuring everybody’s favourite Brad Marchand and Paul Bissonnette.

Marchand gets a one-year suspension from TNT

Last week, the TNT broadcast crew covered the Boston Bruins vs. Pittsburgh Penguins game. Before the contest, Bissonnette was interviewing Marchand – sitting in the penalty box, of course – and asked him what the first message was that he took away once Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco took over the team. To which Marchand responded with, “Thanks, Biz. A bit of a boring question from you. I thought it’d be a good one,” before continuing to answer the “boring” question.”
Bissonnette wasn’t going to let that slide in his next question to Marchand:
“I know my first one was a little boring. Did one of those offseason surgeries include a Turkish hair transplant? You’re looking a little less thin up-top; it looks great.”
And, of course, Marchand clapped back:
“Is it? You know, I was just trying to look like those guys that beat the wheels off you the other night.”
And if you missed what happened there, we’ll link you to the full story here.
Just five days later, when the TNT crew covered the next Boston game, you know the crew there was going to find a way to clap back at the Bruins captain.
It starts with Kenny Albert addressing how they take the broadcast/player relationship to be sacred and take their jobs very seriously. But when the circle of trust is broken between the two parties, that’s when broadcast safety steps in.
The camera then pans to Bissonnette with a long black wig on and a thick black mustache, impersonating the look of the head of the Department of Player Safety, George Parros, calling himself Peorge Garros.
“I’m Peorge Garros, Vice President of NHL broadcast safety. Last Friday, an incident took place ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins game during an interview with Bruins captain, Brad-the-rat-Marchand and superstar hockey analyst Paul Bissonnette.
“Prior to puck drop, towards the end of what should have been a light-hearted exchange, Bissonnette took a moment to compliment Marchand’s horrendous salad. After a seemingly harmless question, Marchand responded with a completely gutless and illegal headshot. Not only did Marchand make direct contact – despite being vertically challenged – but it’s also been determined that the act was pre-meditated.
“On this exchange, Marchand takes a bad angle, unnecessarily driving his comments into Bissonnette’s already bruised and battered brain. Furthermore, we have determined Marchand had the time to avoid this action, but instead, choice verbal violence on a defenceless commentator. After a thorough investigation, it was determined this was not the first time Marchand was quick and distasteful with his wit and tongue. It was also determined Marchand antagonized Bissonnette earlier in the interview, calling his first questions ‘a boring one.’
“Under rule 46.9, any player who continues to hurl personal attacks at an analyst who is already down bad will be assessed a full year suspension of eligibility on the Mr. TNT award and must attend mandatory anger management workshop before being reinstated by the TNT panel.”
If you missed it, here’s the full clip:
The broadcast team continued interviewing Marchand afterward, as Bissonnette was wearing a neck brace, and the two continued exchanging blows at one another. It was a hilarious segment from Bissonnette and the TNT crew against one of this market’s most rival players.
It wasn’t done there, as after the game – where Marchand scored two goals, one being the game-winner – the two went after each other again.

4 Nations Face-off roster breakdown

Team Canada, USA, Sweden and Finland all released their roster on Wednesday, and by now, we’ve all seen that Elias Pettersson, JT Miller, Quinn Hughes and Kevin Lankinen were the four Canucks selected to represent their country.
If you haven’t seen the rosters, here is how each team breaks down:
Team Canada
F: Sam Bennett, Anthony Cirelli, Sidney Crosby, Brandon Hagel, Seth Jarvis, Travis Konecny, Nathan MacKinnon, Brad Marchand, Mitch Marner, Connor McDavid, Brayden Point, Sam Reinhart, and Mark Stone.
D: Cale Makar, Josh Morrissey, Colton Parayko, Alex Pietrangelo, Travis Sanheim, Shea Theodore, and Devon Toews.
G: Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill and Sam Montembeault.
Team USA
F: Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, Jack Eichel, Matt Boldy, Kyle Connor, Jake Guentzel, Jack Hughes, Chris Kreider, Dylan Larkin, JT Miller, Brock Nelson, Brady Tkachuk, and Vincent Trocheck.
D: Adam Fox, Quinn Hughes, Charlie McAvoy, Brock Faber, Noah Hanifin, Jaccob Slavin and Zach Werenski.
G: Connor Hellebuyck, Jake Oettinger and Jeremy Swayman.
Team Sweden
F: Filip Forsberg, William Nylander, Mika Zibanejad, Jesper Bratt, Leo Carlsson, Joel Eriksson Ek, William Karlsson, Adrian Kempe, Elias Lindholm, Elias Pettersson, Gustav Nyquist, Lucas Raymond, and Viktor Arvidsson.
D: Victor Hedman, Erik Karlsson, Gustav Forsling, Rasmus Andersson, Rasmus Dahlin, Mattias Ekholm, and Jonas Brodin.
G: Filip Gustavsson, Jacob Markstrom, and Linus Ullmark.
Team Finland
F: Aleksander Barkov, Mikko Rantanen, Sebastian Aho, Joel Armia, Mikael Granlund, Erik Haula, Roope Hintz, Kaapo Kakko, Patrik Laine, Artturi Lehkonen, Anton Lundell, Eetu Luostarinen, and Tuevo Teräväinen.
D: Miro Heiskanen, Esa Lindell, Jani Hakanpää, Niko Mikkola, Olli Määttä, Rasmus Ristolainen, and Juuso Välimäki.
G: Juuse Saros, Ukka-Pekka Luukkonen and Kevin Lankinen.
Some notable players that did not make their teams on this list here:
Team Canada: Mark Scheifele, Connor Bedard, John Tavares, Dylan Strome, Jordan Kyrou, Evan Bouchard, Dougie Hamilton and Logan Thompson
Team USA: Brock Boeser, Tage Thompson, Cole Caufield, Jason Robertson, Alex DeBrincat, John Carlson and Thatcher Demko
Team Sweden: William Eklund, Fabian Zetterlund, Rickard Rakell, Mikael Backlund, and Hampus Lindholm.
Team Finland: Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Mattias Maccelli, and Joonas Korpisalo
Here are the team breakdowns around the league in terms of who has the most players to the least amount of players:
With four Finns alone, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to see the Panthers have the most players representing them at this tournament. But what is surprising is that the Washington Capitals – who, as of this writing, sit second in the NHL in points – do not have a single representative. On the other hand, Seattle lacks that true superstar, so not seeing them have a player on any of these teams makes sense.
Regardless of who plays for which NHL team, once this tournament starts, nothing matters but their country’s logo on the crest of their jersey. The 4 Nations Face-off kicks off on February 12th, when Team Canada takes on Team Sweden, followed by Team USA against Team Finland on the 13th.
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