Conflicted About The Break

The NHL will shut down its season for a dozen days this month to conduct the first 4 Nations Face-Off. The tournament will feature top NHL players from the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden and will be the first best-on-best event since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

This will provide a showcase for the NHL to put its talent on display in a highly competitive format that should have playoff-type intensity. So why do I feel conflicted about it?

The answer is simple. Timing.

The NHL season is in its fourth month and the Wild, for instance, will have played 56 of their 82-game schedule when their break starts on Sunday. The trade deadline is a month from Friday (March 7) and the postseason begins in mid-April.

So in the midst of all of this, the NHL is going to have a tournament that runs from Feb. 12 to Feb. 20, creating too long of a break for many players and insufficient rest for the top stars.

Wild sending 5 players to 4 Nations Face-Off
In the Wild’s case, they will be represented by Matt Boldy and Brock Faber on the U.S. team, and Jonas Brodin, Joel Eriksson Ek and goalie Filip Gustavsson on Sweden. Each roster will be loaded with talent that includes guys such as Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Cale Makar on Team Canada and Auston Matthews and Matthew Tkachuk on Team USA. That’s only a small sample.

This younger generation of players has been begging for a best-on-best tournament and will be going full speed. But that’s an issue, considering the intensity and pace of these games means it’s likely injuries will happen. Injuries that could sideline key players for extended periods, or cause nagging problems that don’t heal until the offseason.

If I’m an NHL general manager or coach, I wouldn’t be thrilled with the prospect of one of my best players taking part in games that will have a postseason feel, when the actual playoffs don’t start for another two months. That’s not even hitting on the risk of returning to NHL play with a key part of my team sidelined.

This same issue will come up next February as NHL players return to the Olympics for the first time since 2014. As a hockey fan, it will be fantastic to watch. But that doesn’t mean it will be good for the 2025-26 NHL season.

So what’s the solution? There’s a case to be made that best-on-best tournaments and sending NHL players to the Olympics is asking too much. Each team plays 82 regular-season games and last season Florida beat Edmonton in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals on June 24.

So tell me how shoehorning the 4 Nations or Olympics into the schedule best serves the pursuit of a Stanley Cup — arguably the most difficult trophy to win in pro sports. The Canada Cup featured teams from six countries and was held on five occasions from 1976 to 1991. But that was played before training camps opened in a very different era of hockey.

I’m guessing players wouldn’t want to give up time in their offseason to play in such a tournament now, and I can’t blame them. Therein lies the problem. There might be no good time to play a tournament like the 4 Nations — unless you decide the NHL season isn’t the most important thing.