Two-and-a-half weeks from Friday, the inaugural 4 Nations Face Off international hockey tournament kicks off pitting Sweden, Finland the USA and Canada against each other.
Game one is Canada v. Sweden on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at the Bell Centre in Montreal with the championship game on Thursday, Feb. 20 at TD Garden in Boston.
Here’s what fans need to know about the tournament.
Montreal-Boston
Montreal games:
- Feb. 12, 8 p.m. – Canada v. Sweden
- Feb. 13, 8 p.m. – USA v. Finland
- Feb. 15, 1 p.m. – Finland v. Sweden; 8 p.m. – Canada v. USA
Boston games:
- Feb. 17, 1 p.m. – Canada v. Finland; 8 p.m. – Sweden v. USA
- Feb. 20 – Championship Game
Tickets
Prices for tickets vary dramatically based on the game and whether they are standard or reseller tickets.
For example, USA v. Finland games start at $77.35 and go up to $636 for front row on resale sites.
Canada v. USA, on the other hand, start at $414 and go up to almost $3,500.
All prices are as of 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 24.
Championship game tickets in Boston start at $190 USD and go as high as $1,500 USD.
Rosters
Local fans can count on three Habs stars – Joel Armia and Patrik Laine (Finland) and Sam Montembeault (Canada) – among the four teams.
For a full list of the rosters click here.
Format
The round-robin tournament will follow NHL rules (three points for a win, two points for overtime/shootout win etc.).
The top two teams advance to the one-day final.
Historical precedent
In addition to the 1998-2014 editions of the Winter Olympics, the NHL’s best have suited up for their countries in a variety of tournaments since the 1972 Summit Series between the Soviet Union and Canada.
Here’s a list of some of the other important international hockey tournaments:
The Super Series (1976 to 1991) – A series of exhibition games between Soviet club teams (CSKA Moscow, Soviet Wings Moscow etc.) and NHL teams (including the Canadiens). Soviet teams won 14 series, NHL teams won two and two were ties.
The Canada Cup (1976-1991) – The first major international invitational tournament before the advent of the World Cup of Hockey. There were five editions where Canada won four, the Soviet Union won once.
The Challenge Cup (1979) – A one-off tournament of three games where the Soviet Union beat the NHL All-Stars two games to one.
Rendez-vous ’87 (1987) – Played in place of the all-star game, the USSR and NHL All-Stars split the two games with one win a piece.
World Cup (1996-2016) – The heir to the Canada Cup, the USA beat Canada in the inaugural tournament and the following two (2004 and 2016) were won by Canada.
Notable snub
Russia.
