The 2025 Four Nations Face-Off is an international tournament that started on Feb. 12, and ended on Feb. 20, 2025. The games were played in Montreal at Bell Centre and in Boston at TD Garden.
The NHL takes 23 current NHL players, 20 skaters and three goalies selected by each National Association: USA Hockey, Hockey Canada, Finnish Ice Hockey Association and Swedish Ice Hockey Association. This will be the first time there has been a best-on-best hockey tournament since the World Cup in 2016.
A team Canada player told The Athletic, “In my entire career, we haven’t had this…With the Olympics next year, you want to perform well — to obviously win the Four Nations and hopefully be a part of more of these events in the next few seasons.”
With this being the first year of the Four Nations, the players want to show all they have, not only to show that they are good, but for the pride of their country and their flag.
USA and Canada played their first game in Montreal on Saturday, Feb 15. Team USA beat Canada 3-1; three fights broke out in the first nine seconds on ice. Team USA player Matthew Tkachuk and Canada’s Brandon Hagel broke out into the first fight right as the game began.
Matthew’s fight was the fastest ever in an international NHL game, topping the previous record of 20 seconds in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey. That record was set during another matchup between Canada and the U.S.
USA and Canada faced off again, this time in Boston at TD Garden. This match was intense and very well played.
They tied in the first period. Nathan MacKinnon, a Canadian player, scored first. Brady Tkachuk scored for Team USA, and he was assisted by Auston Matthews.
In the second period, Jake Sanderson scored a goal and was assisted by Auston Matthews and Zach Werenski.
Sam Bennet went on to score for Canada, tying the game. The game went into the third period, where they didn’t score a single goal. This took the game into overtime.
During overtime, both teams played heavy defense as expected, which made it harder to score on each other. Connor McDavid scored for Canada and was assisted by Mitch Marner.
This concluded this year’s Four Nations Face-Off. This tournament was an exciting showcase of talent and it showed that they were there for more than their personal pride. Fans look forward to more events like this in the future.
