11-02-2025
4 Nations Face-Off will be a reunion, and a new frontier, for Blue Jackets' Zach Werenski
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Zach Werenski was 12 years old when Sidney Crosby scored the 'golden goal' at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, delivering a gold medal to Team Canada.
He was barely old enough to drive four years later when the shootout heroics of Team USA's T.J. Oshie at the 2014 Games in Russia made him forever known as 'T.J. Sochi.'
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In the fall of 2016, Werenski was getting ready for his rookie season with the Columbus Blue Jackets when the World Cup of Hockey was staged in Toronto.
For Werenski, now 27 years old and one of the NHL's top defensemen, those are some of his favorite hockey memories, along with the opportunities he had to play for Team USA at the 2014 World Under-17s and the 2015 and 2016 World Junior championships.
'We were actually watching that (Sochi) game together,' said Werenski, who played with Auston Matthews, Matthew Tkachuk, Dylan Larkin, Charlie McAvoy and others at the U.S. National Team Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich. 'Between that and playing for the U.S. programs overseas … you get a feel for how important it is.'
Werenski, in the midst of a breakout season with the upstart Blue Jackets, is in Montreal with many of those same players from his USNTDP days, preparing to play for Team USA in the 4 Nations Face-Off, the hockey world's first best-on-best tournament since 2016.
'I always thought I'd get a chance to (play best-on-best),' Werenski said. 'And then next thing you know, there was no Olympics (for the NHL), no World Cup. It was definitely unfortunate, but now we're in a good place and we're getting that best-on-best schedule back. I'm excited for it.
'I was talking with Auston after the (Blue Jackets) game in Toronto (on Jan. 22), and we were telling stories and joking around. It's going to be exciting to be around those guys again. We had great memories playing together. To get to play together in this tournament, I feel like the chemistry has already started.'
When Team USA practiced on Monday in Montreal, Werenski was on the top pairing, with McAvoy on his right. It remains to be seen if he'll carry the heavy workload like he has in Columbus, but his role may have changed over the weekend with the announcement that Quinn Hughes would not play in the tournament.
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For Werenski, a two-time NHL All-Star and serious contender for the Norris Trophy this season, this tournament offers a larger platform than he's ever had.
'I want to show everyone else what I can do on a world stage,' Werenski said. 'My role is going to be different, but my mindset going there is to just do whatever they ask of me. If it's penalty-killing, if it's shut-down … whatever it is, I'm going to do the best I can and just enjoy it.
'You've got a lot of guys who are first-line guys on their team and will go there and might not be on the power play. But you do whatever you can to help the team win.'
These tournaments always make for awkward interactions.
Werenski is the only Blue Jackets player involved in the tournament. But looking around the dressing room as he spoke with reporters late last week, he surmised that might not be the case very soon, especially if Russia is allowed to compete in the 2026 Olympics.
There is one benefit: Werenski won't spend the next week or so battling against his Blue Jackets teammates playing for Canada, Finland or Sweden.
It works the other way, too.
On Saturday, the Blue Jackets played a spirited game against the New York Rangers, losing 4-3 in the final two minutes of the game. Four of Werenski's opponents in that game — Rangers forwards J.T. Miller, Chris Kreider and Vincent Trocheck, plus defenseman Adam Fox — are Werenski's teammates for the next week or so.
'I've seen some of the highlights of old games and how physical it was, the scrums and stuff,' Werenski said. 'I assume this will be the same thing. We haven't played best-on-best in a long time. It's something guys have been looking forward to it, and between the time it's been since we last played a tournament like this and with all of the guys playing it for the first time, it'll be really intense. They'll all be intense, but especially that USA – Canada game (on Saturday).'
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Werenski is excited for the hockey and excited for the reunion among some of his long-ago teammates. But there's another reunion in the offing, too.
Former Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella, now coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, is an assistant coach under Mike Sullivan on Team USA's staff. Werenski developed a strong relationship with Tortorella during their five seasons together in Columbus, and they've remained in touch.
'We had a Zoom call the other day and he popped up on it, and I was just laughing,' Werenski said. 'I was thinking, 'This is gonna be so great.'
'He'll be different in that setting. He's not the head coach, right? And it's a short tournament. I wouldn't have it any other way. This is going to be awesome.'
(Photo of Zach Werenski: Emilee Chinn / Getty Images)
