NHL unveils 4 Nations Face-off schedule on Saturday.
We will get to see best on best international hockey for the first time in a decade.
We are finally set to get some best on best international hockey, and the great news is that we won't have to wait that long to see it either.
On Saturday, ahead of Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers, National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman was available to the media and made a number of major announcements regarding the future of the league.
At the forefront for many was confirmation that we will be getting the Four Nations Face-off that was promised in the winter of 2025, with the cities of Montreal, Quebec and Boston, Massachusetts set to play the role of hosts.
The tournament will kick off on the 12th of February with a game between Canada and Sweden and will end on the 20th of February with the championship game between the two nations that have advanced in the tournament. The other two nations in the tournament will be Finland and the United States of America, and those two teams will start the tournament one day later with their first game against one another set to take place on the 13th of February.
This will be a new format for both the players and the league itself and it remains to be seen if the players will treat this as seriously as an Olympic event for example. Given that the players have been starved of best on best international hockey since the Sochi Winter Olympic Games in 2014, I suspect the competitive fires will be burning pretty hot for most.
The tournament will consist of a total of 7 games between all of the teams involved and may the best hockey nation win.
