From the All-Star Skills competition held on the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas to a Winter Classic that will be held in Miami in 2026, the NHL has gone big when holding special events. But, the attention of the NHL’s All-Star Game has been dying. The 2022 All-Star Game television ratings tumbled when ratings fell 38% from the 2020 rendition of the event.
Starting in a couple of weeks, the format of the All-Star Week is going to change.
Welcome to the Four Nations Faceoff, a transformational change that will bring more attention to the league, while 644 players get a mid-season break. The tournament could be Gary Bettman’s lasting legacy as he announced on Thursday that he plans to retire in the next couple of years.
NHL players from the U.S., Canada, Finland and Sweden will gather to participate in what will be the first best-on-best tournament since the World Cup of Hockey in 2016, which was held in Toronto.
Instead of choosing two players from each team, we’ll see talent from 92 of the league’s best players. This nearly triples the number of players who were able to participate at the All-Star Week last year, refining the mission to create a best-on-best tournament. The tournament will commence on., Wednesday, Feb. 12 at Bell Center in Montreal.
Teams will play in a round-robin format (everyone will play each other once) while points are awarded. The points system mimics the international style scoring system and college hockey – three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime win, one point for an overtime loss and zero points for a loss in regulation.
The two teams that lead the tournament in points will play for the championship at TD Garden in Boston on Thursday, Feb. 20,
In the past, the league chose the players. Now, NHL general managers, are leading their respective governing organizations.
Bill Guerin, the current Minnesota Wild general manager, will represent the United States. Don Sweeney (the Boston Bruins GM) and Jim Nill (the Dallas Stars GM) will both represent Team Canada.
Teammates who were just playing with each other will now be going against each other and representing their home country and go against their teammates, creating newly formed rivalries.
Former NCAA stars Matt Boldy and Brock Faber will represent the United States and go against their current Minnesota Wild teammates – Joel Eriksson Ek, Jonas Brodin and Filip Gustavsson, who will represent Team Sweden.
The NHL has tweaked its All-Star format before, by going to the current 3-on-3 format, which is currently used during regular season overtime. They’ve done Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference.
Bettman got creative this time around, but the new format doesn’t come without its flaws.
It’s unique that All-Star Week festivities will be held in two different cities, yet, two different countries, creating a challenge for fans to attend all games.
With only four teams participating and several star players left out, the tournament feels incomplete. Team Russia was excluded due to the IIHF's ban over the war in Ukraine, which also prevents Kirill Kaprizov from competing.
Team Czechia won’t be participating, excluding Boston Bruins forward David Pastrnak, as they wouldn’t have enough players to field a team.
Kaprizov and Pastrnak both played in the 2024 event.
While the tournament won’t have an impact in terms of points once the regular season resumes, the tournament is a celebration of hockey across North America and Europe, something the traditional All-Star Game never offered.
Instead of the NHL taking a break, you'll get to enjoy seven hockey games over an eight-day span.
As for the tournament, hockey fans in North America should have their eyes on last year’s championship, which was between Team Matthews and Team McDavid, which is set to be a marquee matchup.
This year, it will be United States vs Canada. Both players get to represent their respective countries, while fans get to enjoy.
Auston Matthews, the Scottsdale-native and Toronto Maples Leafs forward, will go head-to-head with Connor McDavid and Team Canada on Saturday., Feb 15.
In 2016, these two clubs split, but it should be no surprise that these two teams should be the heavyweights expected to compete in the championship game.
Since only 18,000 fans can attend each game in-person, the success of the week will be measured by television numbers. Both ESPN and TNT will be covering the tournament, giving fans the opportunity to hear more voices on television, instead of one network
The league needed to switch up the All-Star Week. Let’s get to the break, so we can see some best-on-best hockey.