Next February, there will be a rather unique event that will take place over eight days from Feb. 12-20 when four counties will play in the first 4 Nations Face-Off. The United States, Canada, Finland, and Sweden will play for bragging rights.
The first five days of the tournament will be held at the Bell Centre in Montreal, before it shifts to the TD Garden in Boston for three games, including the championship game. Currently, two members of the Boston Bruins have been selected to take part, defenseman Charlie McAvoy (USA) and forward Brad Marchand (Canada).
Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan will coach Team USA and currently, Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers, Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights, Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Cancuks and Adam Fox of the New York Rangers are joining McAvoy.
David Pastrnak and Czechia will not take part in tournament
One country that will not take place in the tournament is Czechia, which means Boston superstar David Paastrnak will not take part in it, something that he openly spoke about back in February when details were released.
"It’s a huge disappointment. I don’t know much I can say. Definitely not happy about it. I understand that it’s a quick turnaround. It’s next year. They probably didn’t have much time to make it a bigger tournament. But Czech isn’t there. So it’s always a lot of players left out, so I’m not gonna watch the tournament, to be honest. So just happy that the Olympics got accepted. Yeah, [it] definitely stings a little bit."David Pastrnak
It is somewhat surprising that Czechia will not take part, but there will likely be more Black and Gold members who will be selected over the four teams and even some former players who donned the Spoked-B. This is certainly going to be a fun eight days of hockey in February.