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Do NHL players care about the 4 Nations Face-Off? Here’s what they said

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  • Post last modified:February 5, 2025

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Much of the NHL will scatter to the winds next week for a rare 10-day in-season break — a chance to recharge and heal up ahead of the playoff push.

But while they’re back home in Europe or hanging with the family stateside or lounging on a beach in the Caribbean sipping piña coladas, most of them will be keeping tabs on the first best-on-best hockey tournament since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

“I think it’s sick,” one player said. “Best-on-best. That’s what everybody wants to see. I’m gonna watch.”

The 4 Nations Face-Off might not have the history of the Olympics or the depth of field of a World Cup, but it’s still going to have Connor McDavid squaring off against Auston Matthews, Aleksander Barkov against Elias Pettersson and countless other tantalizing matchups.

The best players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States will go head-to-head in Boston and Montreal in a round-robin tournament. The two teams with the best round-robin record (three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime or shootout win, one point for an overtime or shootout loss and zero points for a regulation loss) will meet in Boston on Feb. 20 for the championship.

The participating player who wasn’t interested?

“I’d rather go back home to (my home country),” he said. “I’d rather (have) a two-week break. It sucks you miss the two-week break, but it’s cool you’re playing against the best players right now. Except the Russians aren’t allowed to be in there. That’s stupid. They’re the best players right now.”

Understandably, he wasn’t the only one to express apathy over countries left out of the tournament.

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