All of Canada owes Jordan Binnington an apology after winning country 4 Nations Face-Off

Heading into the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off tournament, Team Canada had as stacked of a roster as any country participating, making roster construction easy. Their forwards consisted of superstars Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. Their defense corps featured guys like Cale Makar, Devon Toews and Josh Morrissey. Their only "weakness" was their goaltending — the goaltenders selected were controversial, to say the least.

Team Canada opted to roll with a trio of Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill and Samuel Montembeault, omitting Logan Thompson, who was pretty deserving of a spot. Plenty of fans would argue that Thompson was the best Canadian goaltender option, and he wasn't even on the team.

Rather than give a guy like Hill — a player who won a Stanley Cup for the Vegas Golden Knights — any run, head coach Jon Cooper started Jordan Binnington the entire tournament, which was a decision virtually no Canadian could get behind, especially after Binnington was shaky in the tournament's opener against Sweden and was defeated by Team USA days later.

As it turns out, Cooper's decision to stick with Binnington for the rest of the tournament aged as well as it could have.

Jordan Binnington proved all of the doubters wrong

Team Canada taking a loss against Team USA made their third and final round-robin game of the tournament a must-win. Binnington got the start in net, and he dominated for much of the game, holding Finland off the board entirely until late in the third period. He allowed Finland to creep back into the game, but by then, Canada had built a substantial 4-0 lead and cruised to a win.

His performance in the Final was as good as any game he had played in quite some time. Matched up against the same Team USA team that beat him, Binnington not only out-dueled Connor Hellebuyck, the Vezina Trophy favorite, but he got better as the game went on and practically willed the Canadians to victory. Without him in net, Team USA likely would've won on any of their numerous overtime chances.

Say what you want about the process of having Binnington on the team over a guy like Thompson and starting every single game, but all that really matters is the result. Binnington, when it mattered most, was unbelievable. He made all of his doubters eat crow, and when he likely is part of Team Canada in the upcoming Olympics, Canadians will likely change their tune entirely.