Emotion, skill and TV ratings: How the 4 Nations Face-Off has smashed expectations

New York Times

16-02-2025

Before rushing forward to get to the next thing, which for everyone involved with the 4 Nations Face-Off meant navigating significant travel disruptions while en route to Boston in a blizzard, we must first pause for a moment of reflection.
These last few days have been, in a word, incredible. A spellbinding, spine-tingling display of what the sport can be when given the proper conditions to pop.
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So much of the focus heading into this fresh-out-of-the-box event focused on what it didn't have — namely, multiple significant NHL stars from countries not among the four invited — that it resulted in many onlookers ignoring everything working in its favor.
Let's start with the players. They begged and pleaded and wailed for a chance to pull on national team sweaters again. They told anyone who would listen that they'd lay it on the line during a midseason tournament with no past and likely no future, and in the four games so far they've exceeded every expectation beyond measure.
'I still don't understand the narrative that it's not big games from the outside because to us this is as big of a game as it gets,' Team USA sparkplug Matthew Tkachuk said Saturday after lighting the fuse on a start against Canada so explosive it won't soon be forgotten.
As he's wont to do, Canadian head coach Jon Cooper may have summed up the three consecutive fights to kick off that game best: 'It was probably, I guess, 10 years of no international hockey exhaled in a minute and a half.'
But while USA-Canada gave us the biggest fireworks — imagine what they might do for an encore in Thursday's final at TD Garden if Canada can beat Finland on Monday to set up the rematch — all four games played at Bell Centre provided a show.
The Canada-Sweden and USA-Finland matchups to open the tournament delivered North American audiences of 4.1 million and 3.4 million, respectively. That was more than double the total viewership the NHL had anticipated heading in, according to league sources.
Official numbers for the rivalry doubleheader played Saturday aren't expected to be compiled and released until Tuesday, but based on the entertainment factor of those games alone, you'd have to expect they'll climb.
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'I remember watching the first game, Sweden-Canada, and that was really fun to watch,' said Finnish forward Mikko Rantanen. 'Today felt like a playoff game. Physicality, a lot of guys were chirping at each other. Everybody wants to win. So, I don't think there's any doubt that everybody's playing hard.'
He'd just been part of a tense and tight contest that featured four lead changes — punctuated by the overtime winner from teammate Mikael Granlund. That Finland-Sweden game was played on Saturday afternoon in Montreal, which meant it aired in prime time for folks back home, and this is how Finns heard the winner called by play-by-play man Antti Mäkinen:
Commodore 64 naulaa ja Mäkinen haipeissa selostuskopissa 😍🇫🇮#4nations pic.twitter.com/3rTDqAuOkj
— Ruutu Urheilu (@RuutuUrheilu) February 15, 2025
Is there any question about his enthusiasm for the event?
Teammate Aleksander Barkov wondered aloud if fans back in Helsinki might be swimming in the Havis Amanda fountain, which has become a traditional (if not a little unusual) way to celebrate big victories by the national team.
'Maybe some guys are in that water,' said Barkov.
Hours later, not long after the much-hyped U.S. and Canada game kicked off with three separate fights in the opening nine seconds, you had social media awash with 4 Nations buzz. Former NFLer J.J. Watt called it 'the best idea hockey has had in a long time.' More than one observer pointed out how much more compelling it was than the NBA All-Star Skills Challenge, which played to tepid reviews at the same time.
Step back and think about it: Could any North American sport currently deliver anywhere near the level of intensity or drama in a competition carved out of its season?
Connor McDavid has been saying that this is about as much fun as he's ever had playing hockey. Sidney Crosby — a two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time Stanley Cup champion, among everything else — struggled to find anything in his memory bank that compared to the opening 20 minutes of USA-Canada.
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'It's up there,' said Crosby. 'I mean the whole game, honestly. The pace was there the whole night. A close game like that you expect that. The pace is right up there. It's hard to compare, but yeah, it's as fast and as intense as I've played, I think.'
Alas, all good things must come to an end.
By this time next week, we'll already have jumped head-first back into the NHL's regular-season schedule and the countdown to the March 7 trade deadline will be truly on. Soon the snow will melt and the heat of the Stanley Cup playoffs will be here.
But, with a Monday doubleheader on tap at TD Garden and the U.S. awaiting its opponent in Thursday's 4 Nations final, let's take a moment to appreciate what we've got in the here and now. International hockey is back in a big way. And whether you're a hockey fan watching from Stockholm, Sicamous, Scottsdale or Seinäjoki, there's a good chance this event stirred something within you.
'Tonight I was thinking about kids watching that game, and what kind of message (it conveys),' American forward Dylan Larkin said after the win over Canada. 'The work ethic, the compete, you know, guys blocking shots. I hope kids are watching that like I was as a kid and wanting so badly to put that jersey on in the next generation.'
(Photo of Canada's Nathan MacKinnon and USA's Dylan Larkin facing off: Vitor Munhoz / 4NFO / World Cup of Hockey via Getty Images)