Why NHL Has To Keep This Format And Other 4 Nations Thoughts

BOSTON — When the NHL and NHLPA announced the 4 Nations Face-Off a year ago, there were many questions surrounding the tournament.

The first and foremost question was whether the tournament would be a “glorified All-Star game” or something so much more.

If you watched the tournament, you know the answer. From the initial puck drop of the round-robin portion, 4 Nations was simply epic and electric. And quite frankly, it’s hard to imagine the NHL ever going back to the tired old All-Star game and skills competition of the past.

Here are several reasons why the NHL has to keep 4 Nations going forward and other random thoughts surrounding the tournament:

Best-On-Best Is Pure Magic
Watching the best hockey players on the planet play together and against each other was of epic proportions.

Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby, Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar led the way for Canada. Auston Matthews, Connor Hellebuyck and Brady and Matthew Tkachuk headlined Team USA. Sebastian Aho, Aleksander Barkov, Mikael Granlund and Patrick Laine suited up for Finland. Viktor Hedman, William Nylander, Erik Karlsson and Filip Gustavsson were top-billed Sweden players.

The games were hard-fought battles, with each player leaving everything on the ice. Yes, there were some injuries, but that just shows how much pride the players have in representing their respective countries.

Now, changing the countries or adding more nations to the tournament could be tricky, but who wouldn’t want to see Russia and/or Czechia playing in the best-on-best format?

Overtime Format
Ten minutes of 3-on-3 hockey was exceptional.

During the NHL’s regular season, fans are treated to 3-on-3 hockey in overtime, but it lasts only five minutes, which is barely enough time for teams to find any sort of rhythm while battling for the extra point.

The 4 Nations’ 10 minutes of extra hockey was perfect. Think back to Canada’s opening game against Sweden.

With the game knotted 3-3, more than six minutes had elapsed in the overtime before Mitch Marner tallied the game-winning goal for Canada. Had it been during the regular season, the horn would have sounded at the five-minute mark, and a fantastic game would have been decided by a shootout.

Nobody wants that.

Team Villains Become Hometown Heros
Bruins fans were torn between cheering for the Tkachuk brothers and booing their own captain Brad Marchand.

Montreal fans love to hate Marchand, but they found themselves cheering for the pesky Bruins forward when he scored Canada’s second goal.

Cheering for your home country allows fans to see players for their talent, not the team crest, like the Spoked-B, on their chests.

Seeing Marchand skate with Sam Bennett on the same line was something no one in Boston thought would ever happen, but Canada head coach Jon Cooper thought they would be formidable matchups, along with Seth Jarvis, against Team USA’s top forwards.

No one could ever have imagined Brady and Matthew Tkachuk being the first two players to hug Charlie McAvoy after the injured Bruins defenseman announced the starting USA lineup against Canada in the gold medal game.

Those things happened, and hockey fans were lucky enough to see them.

Increased Viewership Equals Win-Win For Everyone
The seven-game tournament not only spiked viewership across the United States and Canada, but it also sparked interest in next year’s Winter Olympics by creating a marquee event in the middle of a slow period of the sports calendar and bringing new eyes to arguably the greatest sport.

Rating increases of more than 100% were reported for each of the games televised on ABC, TNT and ESPN for the first time since the 2016 World Cup, according to SVG.com.

Athletes of other sports, like World Series champion Jonathan Papelbon and NFL legend JJ Watt, not only embraced the tournament but raved about its quality on their social media pages.

It’s hard to fathom getting back to regular hockey this weekend after two weeks of 4 Nations competition.

However, there is a silver lining. Most teams have only 25-plus games left in their regular season, which means it’s time for a playoff push.

We can all agree that playoff hockey is some of the best hockey outside of international play, so buckle up — the Stanley Cup playoffs are literally right around the corner.