Reaction: NHL Announces Locations, Dates and Schedule for Upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off
The Cup final is drawing near, but before the exciting climax to the 2023-24 NHL season commences, the league made a breaking announcement, revealing the official locations, dates and schedule for the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament.
The NHL and NHL Players Association announced Saturday evening that the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off will take place in Montreal and Boston this coming February, and fans of international hockey can now set out new spots in their sporting calendar for next year.
The beginning of the tournament – ostensibly, a replacement for the World Cup of Hockey, without participation from Russia and other countries that normally would participate in best-on-best tournaments – starts out in Montreal at Bell Centre, with four games in three days between Feb. 12-15. Then, the games move to Boston for two games Feb. 17. The championship game will then be played in Boston – with all three Boston games taking place at TD Garden – on Feb. 20. And the four nations participating – Canada, America, Sweden and Finland – will pull in huge TV ratings for the showdown.
Certainly, given the passion fans in Montreal and Boston have for the sport, we should expect tickets for all games to sell out. The last World Cup of Hockey took place in 2016, and with no Olympic participation of NHLers since 2014, the desire to see some of the best players on the planet representing their homeland has fans and media hotly anticipating the 4 Nations Face-Off. And now that there’s confirmation of the dates, times and locations, the countdown to the event begins in earnest.
Before the announcement of the 4 Nations Face-Off, THN.com predicted what rosters could look like in this type of tournament. The architects of the teams – including Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney who will be Canada’s GM, and Minnesota Wild Bill Guerin, who has the GM job for Team U.S.A. – are now on the clock as they get set to pare down the group of names eligible to play and create a team identity for their homeland. The hockey world will be keenly watching to see how things unfold on and off the ice. And regardless of which team wins the tournament, fans of great hockey are bound to be delighted consuming the product.