This will be the first best-on-best tournament comprised of NHL players only, and each of them wants to be here. While their NHL teammates are on break — many on vacation in warm, sunny locales — these guys chose to spend extra time on the road in cold, snowy Montreal and Boston.
Some players are coming back from, or playing through, injuries, including Crosby, Canada defenseman Drew Doughty, Finland forward Mikko Rantanen and United States defenseman Zach Werenski.
Practices were all business Monday and Tuesday, the players flying down the ice, the boards rattling at times. Players didn’t leave until the siren sounded, as if they were kids trying to sneak in every second of ice time.
“Everybody wants to see it; every…