NHL stars excited for best-on-best ‘Faceoff’

Feb 10, 2025

Key points from this story:

• NHL players excited for best-on-best event
• Coaches anxious about injury risks
• McDavid to play with Sidney Crosby
• Four Nations Face-Off: Feb. 12-20
• Tournament in Montreal and Boston
• Experts predict USA vs. Canada final

Coaches and general managers around the league, meanwhile, are watching with a touch of anxiety as their players risk injury in an exhibition setting with the all-important Stanley Cup playoffs just around the corner.

McDavid, who was the NHL's No. 1 draft pick in 2015, has played in neither an Olympics or a World Cup as a member of a Canadian team, although he was a member of Team North America (a 23-and-under squad) in the 2016 World Cup. With Canada committed to taking part in the 2026 and 2030 Olympic Games, McDavid will experience more than his share of top-level international hockey and says the Four Nations event, running Feb. 12-20, is a "good teaser."

Played in Montreal and Boston, the tournament is a straightforward single round-robin, with the top two teams meeting in the championship game in Boston on Feb. 20. The four nations taking part are Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland, which offers fans a stellar group of stars but leaves out many of today's best players -- no Germans like Leon Draisaitl or Tim Stutzle, no Russians like Nikita Kucherov or Kirill Kaprizov, no Czechs like David Pastrnak or Martin Necas, no Swiss like Roman Josi and no Dane like Nikolaj Ehlers.

But the lineups of the four teams are nonetheless stacked and picking Canada's team, for instance, meant that a number of great players will stay home – or jet off for a vacation in Mexico or the Bahamas – while their colleagues are wearing the Maple Leaf.