Team USA may get the chance to sabotage Team Canada on Monday.

The Four Nations Face-Off has by all accounts been a massive success for the National Hockey League thus far and it certainly has been an incredibly entertaining product to watch as a fan of the sport of hockey.

On Monday, the Four Nations Face-Off will see two of the most pivotal games of the entire tournament take place when Team Canada takes on Team Finland and Team Sweden goes head to head with Team USA and, because of the format chosen for this tournament, both of those games will have a great many implications for the final of this tournament.

The first game will set the stage with both Finland and Canada having the chance to control their own destiny. Both teams can advance to the final with a regulation win but, should overtime prove necessary, that is where things could truly get interesting. A win for either Canada or Finland in overtime would leave the winning team with only 4 tournament points and would open a path to the final for Team Sweden.

Sweden would need a regulation win in order to advance to the final in that scenario, a scenario that would leave a great deal of power in the hands of a Team USA squad that has already secured it's path to the final of this tournament. In that scenario, Team USA could lose in regulation to Sweden in order to allow the Swedes to advance to the final if they felt that this would prove to be the easier path to a Four Nations Face-Off championship.

Effectively, an overtime win for either Team Canada or Team Finland will give Team USA the power to choose their final opponent and would open the door to Team USA sabotaging Team Canada or Team Finland's hope for a finals appearance. I doubt very much that Team USA would ever go down this route, but that they could even end up in a scenario where they have the option to do so is extremely interesting to say the least.

Here's a simplified breakdown of how each team can advance to the final today:

Team USA (6 points) - Have already secured the first spot in the final.

Team Canada (2 points) - A win in regulation puts them at 5 points and a spot in the final due to holding the tiebreaker over Team Sweden. A win in overtime gives them only 4 points and does not guarantee a spot in the final.

Team Finland (2 points) - A win in regulation puts them at 5 points and a spot in the final due to holding the tiebreaker over Team Sweden. A win in overtime gives them only 4 points and does not guarantee a spot in the final.

Team Sweden (2 points) - A win in regulation puts them at 5 points, but due to the tiebreakers they can only advance if Canada vs. Finland does not end in regulation time.