NHLPA Believes Momentum For 4 Nations Will Build In Upcoming Weeks

NHL Players Association executive director Marty Walsh returned to Boston on Saturday afternoon to attend the Boston Bruins’ Original Six matchup with the New York Rangers at TD Garden.

However, the former Boston mayor was not in town to watch a hockey game. Walsh was on hand to promote the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off, which begins Feb. 12 in Montreal.

“The main topic is the 4 Nations coming up, best-on-best competition in international hockey,” Walsh told reporters before puck drop, according to audio provided by NESN’s Keagan Stiefel. “We haven’t had it in a while in the league, and having it come back is great, We have 90 NHL players playing.

“A lot of fans, particularly here in Boston and around the country, around the world, haven’t seen this type of tournament in a long time. … I’m excited personally, as the former mayor of Boston, that we’re hosting the championship game here at the Boston Garden.”

Despite ticket sales being slow to start, Walsh feels the tournament’s momentum will build over the next few weeks.

“People are talking about it,” Walsh said. “I think that now with football being beyond the AFC and NFC Championship games heading into the Super Bowl, people are starting to focus on this tournament. After the Super Bowl, it’s going to be two weeks of international hockey. I think more people are going to start paying attention to it.”

The Bruins will have four teammates turned into foes, with captain Brad Marchand representing Canada, Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman suiting up for Team USA and Elias Lindholm getting the call to join Team Sweden.

Unfortunately, one of the Bruins’ biggest stars will only be able to cheer on his teammates instead of playing against them. Finland is the fourth nation in the tournament, leaving out Czechia and David Pastrnak.

“What happened there, and Pasta was one of (the players jockeying for more teams), we talked to him, when I took over in 2023, one of the things was we wanted to get the World Cup of Hockey back in place, and we wanted to do the Olympics. So we started talking to the league about the Olympics and came to an agreement,” Walsh explained. “… We realized we didn’t have enough time. We talked about six teams, eight teams and we went with the four because we just didn’t have the time to put a tournament that big together.

“We talked about 16, 18, 14 games, and we went with four because there was just no time to put a tournament that big together.”

The 4 Nations Face-Off will replace the NHL All-Star Game this season and will be held from Feb. 12 through Feb. 20 at Bell Centre and TD Garden.