PITTSBURGH — One of many stirring images inside TD Garden late Thursday night featured Team Canada's players with their arms wrapped around one another, standing along the blue line and singing "O Canada" as their country's flag was raised.

It was a perfect, emotional depiction of what this all meant, even if it came as the result of another American loss in a big-time international game.

What happened a few minutes later was also amazing to see: the broadcast shifting from Boston to Stamford, Conn., where the four-team hockey tournament was unquestionably the lead story on ESPN's SportsCenter.

Connor McDavid had his moment, scoring at 8:18 of overtime. Nathan MacKinnon won tournament MVP. Canadian goalie Jordan Binnington was impenetrable, and Sidney Crosby continued his legacy as one of the greatest winners in hockey history.

The whole thing rocked.

"It's a win for Canada," Steve Levy would say on the broadcast, "but it's also a win for the sport of hockey."

Yes — a bazillion times over, yes.

After Canada's victory, a few players talked about initially being unsure of what to expect in the four-team event. Crosby wondered whether it would feel like an All-Star game, or would the intensity be higher? What transpired exceeded everyone's expectations.

"You saw the passion, and it continued to build," Crosby said. "You saw the attention and how much it meant to people. And obviously in Canada, we have a lot of pride with being Canadian, but also for hockey as well. I think our group felt that."

As we work through some takeaways from the entire tournament, that was my biggest one: the momentum built over these two weeks and how the NHL must push it forward and not go back.

That won't be hard in 2026, when the best-on-best competition will be even better at the Olympics. I'm talking about repeating this event in the future, finding a way to continually pit the best players against one another, either via the 4 Nations, the World Cup of Hockey, or a Summit Series type of deal with just the United States and Canada.

These games showed how exciting hockey can be when the stakes are high. Also ironic: ESPN's longtime deal with Major League Baseball will end after this season, a piece of news that actually broke during the 4 Nations final.

I'm not saying hockey will replace baseball within the hierarchy of major North American professional sports. But I do think the NHL put itself in position to have a bigger piece of the pie given the success of this tournament.

Sullivan shines

The narrative here has been that coach Mike Sullivan is stubborn, unwilling to adjust and perhaps the wrong coach to guide the Penguins into a new era.

What Sullivan did on this stage with Team USA should blow those misconceptions to smithereens.

I thought Sullivan was terrific as Team USA's head coach, the event reminding us of what he could do here with a different roster.

In a round-robin pasting of Sweden, Sullivan's decision to put Jack Eichel between Brady and Matthew Tkachuk paid dividends. To close a win over Canada, Sullivan's team played smart, lock-down hockey. And the coach found another gem Thursday by bouncing Auston Matthews between wings.

Funny how much smarter Sullivan looks with better players.

I'd also like to clarify my position on something here. I wrote earlier this season that I was baffled by Fenway Sports Group's decision to stick by Sullivan, in large part because the Penguins had/have grown stale and sustained struggles routinely force firings in pro sports.

I don't regret what I wrote. FSG has said its goal is the Stanley Cup, and the Penguins aren't close. Changing the one thing they could felt reasonable. At the same time, I think the question here should be this: Are the Penguins better off with or without Sullivan?

I'm perfectly fine with the first option.

McDavid's moment

It was hard not to consider the McDavid goal in a larger context.

The setup felt familiar to Sid's Golden Goal in the 2010 Vancouver Games. Back then, it was Jarome Iginla. This time, Mitch Marner drew pressure in the corner, which created open space for McDavid.

(Side note: Marner is extremely fun to watch as a passer.)

That McDavid got the tournament-clinching goal felt appropriate given his status in the game and the mantle he's in the process of inheriting from Crosby.

Nine years older than McDavid, Crosby remains an absolute freak, his dedication to the sport unmatched and his skill very much elite. But there's no denying McDavid's stardom.

"We all know he's the best player in the NHL," MacKinnon said afterward, talking about the three-time Hart Trophy winner McDavid.

Well, until Thursday, McDavid didn't really have a signature moment. Now he does, though obviously he'll need to hoist the Stanley Cup a few times before we start any real comparisons to old man Crosby.

Speaking of Sid ...

It wasn't hard to tell what this meant to the Penguins captain, who naturally was one of the best players in the tournament. My personal favorite Crosby moment came in the Finland game, when he flattened Mikael Granlund and scored into an empty net.

Crosby played much of this thing with one arm. I don't know what that will mean for the Penguins, and I also don't care. Crosby deserves the chance to compete on this stage. We've seen how fleeting these opportunities can be for NHL players.

It was awesome to see Crosby continue to dominate, as well as the reverence with which he was treated by his Canadian teammates.

"I think just my passion for it and just getting an opportunity to play with these guys," Crosby said when asked what keeps him going. "How can you not be motivated by that? It's a pretty special group. Happy for Connor to get that goal. He's an incredible player. He stepped up big when we needed."

Binnington shines

So much for the consternation over Jordan Binnington's place on the Canadian roster. The Blues netminder re-affirmed his status as a big-game goalie with a virtuoso performance on Thursday night: 31 saves, six in overtime.

Binnington could've been named MVP over MacKinnon, and I wouldn't have protested.

Just go back and watch the sequence less than five minutes into overtime: blocker stop on Matthews from the slot, then sliding to his left to deny Brady Tkachuk with a couple shades of Frank Pietrangelo. On the ensuing face-off, Binnington robbed Matthews again with an incredible glove save.

The performance drew comparisons to Binnington beating the Bruins in that building in 2019. After the OT sequence, I couldn't help but think of Mike Lange and one of his famous phrases after a terrific save: "He should get five to 10 for that."

Canada's goalie was incredible, but so was the entire tournament, a reminder that hockey can actually be really fun and that marquee events do work, provided they're done right. Now, the NHL needs to keep going and continuing building on the 4 Nations' success.

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