From Friends to Foes at 4 Nations | FEATURE | New Jersey Devils

For Bratt, this will be the first opportunity for true best-on-best hockey he’ll play at the Men’s level, and it has been a long time coming.

“It’s something you’ve always dreamed of,” Bratt said from his home in New Jersey. “I remember after my draft when I was watching the World Cup of Hockey, and I remember just dreaming to be in that situation, to play best-on-best in a tournament. So obviously, super, super excited. Very honored to be putting on the jersey and play a best-on-best tournament. I’m looking forward to it.”

Markstrom, who is in his first year with New Jersey, now has first-hand knowledge of what it’s like to be teammates with Bratt and just how valuable he is as a teammate. It’s something Team Sweden will benefit from, he says.

“He’s a perfect player for this kind of tournament,” Markstrom said on the NHL’s media availability shortly after the announcement was made. “He’s coming to work; he’s not leaving anything to chance. He’s going to make sure that he’s going to do everything he can to be ready and help Team Sweden be as successful as possible.”

“With Bratter, you get a different view of him as a player,” Markstrom added. “You’ve played against him, and you see the skill and whatever he does on the ice, and when you become teammates with the guy, you see what he does, all the work he puts in every day, and what kind of human being he is off the ice too.”

The goalie pool for Sweden is deep. Markstrom joins Minnesota’s Filip Gustavson and Ottawa’s Linus Ullmark as the Three Crowns three goaltenders. Sweden head coach Sam Hallman has quite a choice ahead of him going into the short tournament.

“Filip has been playing unbelievable in Minnesota,” Markstrom said, sizing up the trio. “And Ullmark is a world-class goalie, coming off one year ago winning the Vezina (…) I think goaltending, our job is to push eachother. Filip, Linus, and myself, we want to be in the net and play, but only Sam is going to have that tough decision to make come game-time, but that’s part of it when you do this best-on-best tournament. We’re here to push each other, it’s a short tournament, two games, and you want to win them both to be able to play in the final. We’re here to support the team and here to wear the Three Crowns proudly.”