The 4 Nations Face-Off gets underway on Wednesday night as Canada plays Sweden in the first of seven games over the next nine days. The four-team tournament, also featuring the United States and Finland, is the NHL’s first attempt at its own international hockey event since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
All four teams, made up of exclusively NHL players, will play each other once. The top two teams in the standings after those games will compete in the championship game on February 20. The teams will receive three points for a regulation win, two points for a win in 3-on-3 overtime or shootout, one point for a loss in 3-on-3 overtime or shootout, and zero points for a regulation loss.
In the final game, if overtime is required, the two teams will play full-strength 20-minute periods in NHL playoff style until a winner is determined. There will be no consolation game to determine a third and fourth-place finisher.
Here is your 4 Nations Cup these players are competing for ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/aw6jMtYmt7
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) February 11, 2025
The first four games will be played at the Centre Bell in Montreal, and the final three will be played at TD Garden in Boston. The action will be broadcast nationally in the United States on TNT, ESPN, or ABC.
Tournament schedule
- Game 1 – Wednesday, Feb. 12 – Canada vs Sweden, 8:00 (TNT)
- Game 2 – Thursday, Feb. 13 – USA vs Finland, 8:00 (ESPN, ESPN+)
- Game 3 – Saturday, Feb. 15 – Finland vs Sweden, 1:00 (ABC, ESPN+)
- Game 4 – Saturday, Feb. 15 – USA vs Canada, 8:00 (ABC, ESPN+, Disney+)
- Game 5 – Monday, Feb. 17 – Canada vs Finland, 1:00 (TNT)
- Game 6 – Monday, Feb. 17 – Sweden vs USA, 8:00 (TNT)
- Game 7 – Thursday, Feb. 20 – Championship game, 8:00 (ESPN, ESPN+)
Lines
Team Canada
Extras: Sam Bennett, Travis Sanheim, Sam Montembeault
Team Finland
Extras: Kaapo Kakko, Jusso Valimaki, Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
Team Sweden
Extras: Leo Carlsson, Rasmus Andersson, Samuel Ersson
Team USA
Extras: Chris Kreider, Jake Sanderson, Jeremy Swayman
Note: All lines provided by NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti.
Major storylines
Canada
The Canadians have won 12 consecutive games at NHL international tournaments dating back to the 2004 World Cup of Hockey opener, the longest winning streak in history. However, the reigning World Cup champions have major questions in net after snubbing Capitals goaltender Logan Thompson in the roster selection process.
Jordan Binnington has been tabbed as the team’s opening game starter. Binnington is 15-19-4 for the St. Louis Blues this season with a 2.89 goals-against average and a .897 save percentage.
Finland
No team has been more ravaged by injury than the Finns, particularly on defense. The nation’s top defender, Miro Heiskanen of the Dallas Stars, and the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Jani Hakanpaa were replaced by New York Rangers defender Urho Vaakanainen and Buffalo Sabres blueliner Henri Jokiharju just over a week ago.
Finland already had only 11 NHL defensemen to choose from before the injuries. Their defense corps at this tournament would be weak for an individual NHL team’s standards.
Sweden
The Swedes’ center depth has severely underperformed in the NHL to this point of the 2024-25 season. Elias Pettersson, the team’s first-line center, has just 34 points (11g, 23a) through 49 games for the Vancouver Canucks and has been heavily involved in trade rumors for several months.
Second-line center Mika Zibanejad has just 37 points (11g, 26a) and is a minus-24 in 55 games for the New York Rangers. Third-line center Joel Eriksson Ek has just 23 points (9g, 14a) in 41 games for the Minnesota Wild. Finally, fourth-line center Elias Lindholm has just 29 points (10g, 19a) in 57 games for the Boston Bruins.
USA
The Americans have not won senior international gold since the 1996 World Cup. The US lost the best player of any of the four nations due to injury when Quinn Hughes was forced to step aside for Jake Sanderson earlier this week.
This tournament will also be the true senior USA debut for Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews, as he has yet to represent his country during his nine-year NHL career. Brothers Matthew Tkachuk and Brady Tkachuk will also play together for the first time.
No Capitals
The Washington Capitals are one of only two NHL teams that will have no player representation at the tournament, joining the San Jose Sharks. Players like Thompson, Tom Wilson, John Carlson, Rasmus Sandin, etc. were not chosen despite the Capitals being one of only two teams with at least 80 standings points this season.
Thompson and Wilson were thought to be in the mix for Canada, but neither was chosen when the rosters were announced in early December. Thompson’s absence is rumored to be because of his frosty relationship with former Vegas Golden Knights coaches Bruce Cassidy and Peter DeBoer, who are assistants on Jon Cooper’s staff.
The Florida Panthers are the most represented team at the event with eight total players competing.
The 4 Nations Face-Off replaces this year’s NHL All-Star Weekend. The tournament’s current format is not expected to persist into future seasons as commissioner Gary Bettman has previously stated that the league intends to eventually host a more traditional World Cup of Hockey tournament in 2028 after players compete in the 2026 Olympics.
“We wanted this tournament, as we get ready for the Olympics and the World Cup, to be all NHL players and these these four countries fit the bill better than any of the others,” Bettman said last June.
The NHL, NHLPA, and IIHF came to an agreement for a full return to Olympic competition last year. The new deal includes the 2026 games in Italy and the 2030 games in the French Alps.
