History has just been written, and Team USA has brought home the IIHF Hockey World Championship cup after 92 years! This is a long-awaited win for the US international team after placing second in the 4 Nations Face-Off to Canada, in an oft-repeated outcome, and after placing fifth in last year’s World Championship. It was an especially emotional win as well, with Team USA honoring the memory of Johnny Gaudreau with his jersey hanging in the locker room through the tournament. It was a moment that brought together many NHL players who’ve experienced the wins and losses of the years on an international platform to celebrate their resilience through it all; however, some of the USA’s most coveted players could yet again not make this tournament on account of their conflicting NHL schedules.
One might ask at this point why two such enormous hockey tournaments are scheduled at the same time of the year: the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the World Hockey Championships? Well, it’s simple; they’re functioning on different clocks. The Stanley Cup, based out of North America, is planned so it doesn’t clash with the NFL playoffs, while the World Hockey Championships are scheduled for around the same time as other large European tournaments, so over the years many NHL players who have qualified for the NHL playoffs have not been able to represent their country internationally at the IIHF.
Matthew Tkachuk and Auston Matthews, for starters, are two of the most well-known names in US hockey and have never been able to make a single IIHF appearance in their careers. Both forwards are 27 years old and made their NHL debut in 2016, which gives them 9 good years in which they could have made an IIHF appearance, but in all these years their teams.
Image via Facebook/ USA Hockey
At the same time, Canada was playing with heavyweights such as Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon on the team. While many assumed Team USA would struggle without their big stars—only two players from the Face-Off made it to Sweden: Zach Werenski and Jeremy Swayman—Denmark’s shocking upset over Canada in the quarterfinal meant that Team USA had a fairly clear opportunity to nab the title, one that they grabbed with both hands, despite the absences.
Why Matthew Tkachuk and Auston Matthews haven’t even been able to make it to the IIHF World Hockey Championship
For Auston Matthews, it’s been pretty clear. The Toronto Maple Leafs, who he has been playing for since he was drafted to the NHL in 2016, have made a playoff appearance every year. However, given the Maple Leafs won their last Stanley Cup in 1967, the trade-off, i.e., playing in the playoffs vs. the World Championships, is well balanced; neither team has won the gold in those years, but maybe it’s about the experience of the international stage. That said, Matthews did play in one World Championship, winning bronze in 2016, prior to joining the Leafs.
For Matthew Tkachuk, things are maybe a tad bit better, well, at least since he joined Florida in 2022. Before that, he suffered an ankle injury when playing for the junior hockey league, the London Knights, in 2016, which prevented him from taking part in the U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp, which would have ultimately been a doorway to Team USA had he done well there. But Tkachuk did his real peaking in Florida while Florida was on the rise, and considering they made the Stanley Cup finals in 2023, won the cup in 2024, and are looking pretty good this year, maybe it’s not such a bad thing he hasn’t been at Worlds.
Either way, NHL players don’t really get to decide for themselves. Unless it’s the Olympics or NHL-organized events like the 4 Nations Face-Off, it’s club over country. It’s also a money game, and with so much money in the NHL, it’s unlikely their best players, among whom are Auston Matthews and Mathew Tkachuk, are going to be getting sent off to Team USA playing in Europe when all eyes are on America.
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