Coming into the 2024-2025 NHL season, the NHL decided to completely eliminate the All-Star Game for one year and replace it with the 4 Nations Face-off. The NHL decided to do this as a way for the NHL players to have an international tournament, which they haven’t had in nine years, as well as get back into the routine of international play. By doing this, international play will come back into the hockey world as NHL players will return to the 2026 Winter Olympics.
While fans, players, and the league were all excited to see this international tournament within the NHL, no one could have possibly expected it to go so well. According to the NHL, there was an average of 4.6 million viewers who watched the six round-robin games. This was an increase of an outstanding 226% from the last comparable tournament, the 2016 Hockey World Cup. Not only this, but the 4 Nations final between the USA and Canada had 16 million viewers tune in, which is significantly more than any All-Star game in North America in recent years. So, why was the 4 Nations Face-off such a huge success for the NHL fans and its market?
One obvious reason for the huge success of the 4 Nations was getting the best players to play for their nations. Unlike the NBA, NFL, and MLB, the majority of NHL players aren’t from the USA, but actually Canada. While the number of American-born NHL players has been increasing in recent years, as of now, it stands that 45.9% of players are from Canada, with 26.8% of players being from the U.S. As for the other countries represented in the 4 Nations Face-off, Swedish-born players make up 9.82% of the NHL, and Finish-born players make up 5.7%. While Canada and the USA do heavily outweigh Finland and Sweden in players, the amount of star power and talent is actually fairly even, with upsets during the tournament coming from a 2-1 win by Sweden vs. USA, a 4-3 win by Finland vs. Sweden, and a 3-1 win by USA vs. Canada.
This shows that the NHL can have an international tournament within only the NHL while still maintaining fairly equal teams. While yes, NBA players competed in the Olympics in 2024, and the MLB had players compete in the World Baseball Classic (WBC) in 2023, these teams consisted of players from all around the world, not just solely in the most talented league. Even though having the best players compete for their homeland is one reason the 4 Nations was such a big success, there’s actually an even deeper reason why it succeeded.
For years now, the NBA, NFL, MLB, and NHL have all struggled with making their annual all-star games interesting and exciting. While the idea of bringing the best players from whichever league into one all-star game seems exciting, if anyone has ever watched one of these games in recent years, then you’ve seen the lack of excitement in these games. This is for a mix of reasons, but the main one is player effort and safety.
During the all-star games, players typically don’t want to get injured for what actually matters, their real team and possible playoff chances. Because of this, players often don’t try as hard, because the All-Star Game doesn’t really matter and is only for fun. All of these factors make watching All-Star games boring and less exciting.
In recent years, things have changed to try and fix these problems. For example, the NFL swapped their actual Pro Bowl football game for a flag football game, and in the NBA, they changed the All-Star Game format to include more mini-games in a tournament style, with target scores instead of time. Yet if you ask anyone who’s watched these changes happen, they’ll tell you that it’s actually worse than what it used to be. This is because no matter how hard major sports leagues try to positively change their all-star games, it really never feels the same to how it used to be, when players actually gave effort.
Along with the other major sports leagues in the U.S., the NHL also had this problem, and their change for their All-Star Game was to just get rid of it for the year and replace it with the 4 Nations Faceoff. The difference with this, though, was that the players showed pride for their countries, and they really tried, almost as if it was the playoffs.
In the first matchup of USA vs. Canada, the game had three fights in the first nine seconds, showing how intense the rivalry is between these two countries. The tournament also had multiple overtime with very close finishes, which, for every fan, was incredibly exciting to watch. The difference with the 4 Nations Face-Off was that the players showed passion and pride for representing their country. This made the tournament not only meaningful for the players themselves but also exhilarating for fans to watch. Even people who aren’t NHL fans tuned in to watch and were blown away by the excitement of the tournament. In all, what makes All-Star games worth watching are them actually being enjoyable to watch, and the 4 Nations Face-Off did just that.
The NHL made a statement by not only forming the 4 Nations Face-off but also scheduling games during this year’s NBA All-Star games. While this seemed like a risky idea for the NHL, it proved to be a huge success, as the 4 Nations Face-off boasted millions more views than the NBA did. While the NHL isn’t America’s most popular sport, they definitely managed to make a statement by showing how exciting the league actually is. With the 2026 Olympics coming up, the real question now lies in whether the NHL will continue to play the 4 Nations Faceoff and what other international play might we see in not just the NHL but possibly other major sports leagues.
