The Winter Olympics will feature best-on-best hockey for the first time since the 2014 games hosted in Sochi, Russia. After the success of last year’s 4 Nations Faceoff, many fans have waited in anticipation since then for more. Canada, USA, Finland, Czechia, Sweden, France, Switzerland, Slovakia, Germany, Latvia, Denmark, and host nation Italy make up the pool for this year’s tournament, which is set in Milan.
After the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, the NHL decided to skip out on the Winter Olympics in 2018 due to the conflict with one of the densest parts of the schedule in the season. Their hope was to hold the World Cup every four years in August, which would allow fans to get best-on-best hockey every four years without having to miss out on NHL hockey. It would also be more convenient for North American fans, as they had the final say on where tournaments would be hosted, and the NHL would sanction the games as opposed to the International Ice Hockey Foundation (IIHF).
Unfortunately, this plan did not last long, as the World Cup was cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID pandemic and was never rescheduled. Despite this, the NHL decided not to send players to the Beijing Olympics in 2022.
As a result, hockey fans were left without best-on-best hockey for 9 years. NHL players would frequently compete in the IIHF World Championships in May every year, but due to the conflict with the Stanley Cup Playoffs, many top players were unable to compete, leaving it short of best-on-best status.
During this period, the biggest international hockey tournament for many was the World Junior Championships, a U20 tournament held every year at the end of December. While not best-on-best, the tournament became a large source of pride for fans of many nations, and many NHL fans would tune in to see upcoming players and the future stars of the league.
In February of 2024, the league announced that their players would return to the ice on the biggest international stage, but another announcement was made. The 4 Nations Faceoff was to be held in 2025 between the United States, Canada, Finland, and Sweden in Boston and Montreal. The tournament was meant to serve as an “appetizer” for the Olympic games in place of the All-Star game that year, which many had disliked due to the apparent disinterest from both players and fans.
The tournament was a massive success, drawing worldwide attention, particularly in the host nations of USA and Canada, who were also the two finalists. The championship game between those two teams, which Canada won 3-2 in overtime, was viewed by 16.1 million people across both nations, in addition to fans from other countries. The intensity of the tournament and the massive audience made fans and players anticipate the return of best-on-best Olympic hockey even more.
“I‘m very excited to watch the tournament this year,” said HHS senior Colman Donohue. “International hockey is always really fun to watch, and I really want to see the US win.”
HHS junior Will Pollenz shares the same sentiment: “The 4 Nations Faceoff drew me back into international hockey and I’m looking forward to seeing how that momentum is carried into the Olympics this year.”
The tournament will be held from February 11-22 at Rho Arena and Santagiulia Arena in Milan, and many fans of the 12 nations have traveled to Milan in hopes of seeing their country win gold.
