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Thursday night's championship game of the 4 Nations Face-Off will command plenty of attention here in the STL.

Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington will be on the spot — to say the least — if Team Canada coach Jon Cooper sticks with him in the nets as expected. 

Binnington took the 3-1 loss against the American during the round robin portion of the tourney while allowing goals he clearly wanted back. And Finland caught him swimming about the crease (and losing his stick) Monday as it scored three late 6-on-5 goals in the 5-3 victory for Canada.

Writing for , Ryan S. Clark and Kristen Shilton assessed the situation:

Jordan Binnington is a polarizing figure. Cooper's determination to stick with him as Canada's starter throughout this tournament has been met with criticism, confusion and countless questions. His stats at the event also have been underwhelming (.892 save percentage, 2.60 goals-against average).

But Cooper hasn't wavered, and Binnington was the best he has been so far in Canada's game against Finland.

Now it comes down to whether the Stanley Cup-winning ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Blues backstop can carry that performance over into the final — at least the one he turned in for 55 minutes (giving up two 6-on-5 goals to the Finns in three minutes was a tough look). Timely stops — that's what Hellebuyck has provided the U.S., and it's what Binnington has increasingly shown he can give to Canada.

Granted, Binnington didn't get much help offensively from his teammates in that first outing against the Americans, but regardless if that's the case again Thursday, Binnington must save his most complete effort for this final bout.

Leading the Team USA charge will be Our Town’s rambunctious Matthew and Brady Tkachuk. They did their Hanson Brothers routine in the earlier game against the Canadians while triggering three fights in the first 9 seconds of the game.

In the third bout, Blues fans got to see what a Colton Parayko fight looks like when he stood in against J.T. Miller and channeled his inner Bob Plager.

Matthew Tkachuk said fights were scripted by Team USA to send the message that, “It’s our time right now.�

“I didn’t hear him say that,� Binnington sniffed. “But he’s trying to make some noise, which he likes to do, and we’re just going to stick to our job here and focus on one game at a time, one period at a time.�

Binnington has demonstrated impressive mental toughness and poise through the Blues’ retool. He emerged as a team leader by providing steadying influence during difficult times.

He will need every bit of that to handle this looming challenge. The pressure on players in this single game showdown between Team Canada and Team USA is immense. These high-profile international battles can define individual legacies.

Here is what folks have been writing about it:

Pierre LeBrun, The Athletic: “There was a lot of exuberance among Team USA players Saturday night when they talked to reporters after beating Canada. There was a real sense of achievement in ending Canada’s 17-game win streak in best-on-best matchups, which dated 15 years. That is understandable. You can’t blame this generation of U.S. stars for feeling like what happened Saturday night was significant. Matthew Tkachuk called it the biggest moment in his career next to last June’s Game 7 win in the Stanley Cup Final. All good. But the American players need to park it now. If Team USA doesn’t win Thursday night in front of a home crowd, the only thing we’ll remember of that Feb. 15 round-robin matchup years from now will be the three fights in nine seconds. Because the final word will be, ‘Yeah, but Canada came back to win the big one. Again.’ That’s what is truly at stake on Thursday night. Canada captain Sidney Crosby has a chance to continue his remarkable era of dominance with a fourth best-on-best title (2010 Olympics, 2014 Olympics, 2016 World Cup of Hockey, 4 Nations), not to mention the fact that No. 87 can add to his already legendary reputation by having played this event with one good arm. Just as importantly, a win for Canada would go a long way toward calming a religiously intense hockey country whose national pride has been dented with back-to-back quarterfinal losses in the World Junior Championship."

Nicholas J. Cotsonika, : “The United States failed to defeat Canada in the gold-medal game of the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, but hockey has been growing in the United States. Here, in the first best-on-best tournament since the World Cup of Hockey 2016 in Toronto, the Americans have the talent and depth to compete with the Canadians. They showed it Saturday and want to show it again Thursday. The Canadians want to restore what they feel is the rightful order, and they will have Cale Makar one of the best defensemen in the NHL, who sat out with an illness Saturday.”

Eric Engels, Sportsnet: “A meaningless affair turned out to be a costly one for Team USA, with its best player through their first two contests of this 4 Nations Face-Off finishing Game 3 in the infirmary instead of on the ice. That the Americans lost 2-1 to previously winless Sweden on Monday should be a back-pocket concern to losing Brady Tkachuk, the net-crashing king of this tournament who went full force into the post midway through the first period and only returned to the game for a 14-second shift before it was announced his night was over. USA coach Mike Sullivan said afterwards Tkachuk’s departure due to a lower-body injury was precautionary and that all signs were pointing towards him playing in Thursday’s final against Canada, but there’s no denying he could be one of several Americans going into that game feeling less than 100 per cent. Brother Matthew is another. He missed most of the third period of Saturday’s final-clinching 3-1 win over Canada Saturday with a lower-body injury and was kept out of Monday’s game.�

Ken Campbell, The Hockey News: “If you can believe it, Canada's 4 Nations Face-Off coach, Jon Cooper, has never won a Jack Adams Award as the best coach in the NHL.  In fact, he's only been a finalist twice in the 11 full seasons he's been behind an NHL bench. And he likely won't win the award this year, either. But that does not mean he isn't among the best in the business, because he is. If the Tampa Bay Lightning ever decided to part ways with him, or he with them, there would be a conga line of NHL GMs showing up in Brinks trucks to have him coach their teams. Cooper's coaching acumen was on full display Monday afternoon as Team Canada faced a must0win game against Finland in the 4 Nations Face-Off. After a crushing defeat to USA Saturday night, Cooper kept a steady and poised hand at the tiller and made the adjustments he needed to to change his team's fortunes. He made some crucial line changes that changed the way Canada played and brought out the best in the stars on the roster.�

Megaphone

“It’s a Game 7, right? It’s for everything. You’re going to see desperate hockey. You’re going to see everything you saw in the first game and more, I imagine. It’ll be great.�

Team USA center Jack Eichel, on the looming showdown.