The NHL is rolling out their new tournament this year, the 4 Nations Face-off, to replace the annual All-Star game. Similar to other sports leagues, the NHL All-Star game has been consistently losing ratings due to the lack of enthusiasm and effort provided by the players and league. This trend has been happening across sports for quite some time now. The players don’t have any incentive to play well or hard, so they simply don’t. I don’t necessarily blame them and do believe something has to be changed. On the other hand, these guys make more money than any of us may ever see. It wouldn’t hurt them to be a little competitive, in my opinion.
The NHL is one of the quickest dying leagues in terms of viewership – so they were the first to make a change and it rocks. I’ll be transparent; I’ve never been a day-to-day NHL guy (although anyone who thinks they can beat me in NHL on console can kick rocks). I’ll watch the Stanley Cup every year but it’s like baseball to me – playoffs are freakin’ awesome but I could honestly care less about a regular season game nonetheless an All-Star game. So, what could you adjust to an All-Star game in a dying league? Just a touch of patriotism will do the trick. Watch this and tell me with a straight face that you didn’t get chills.
The 4 Nations Face-off includes 4 countries (USA, Canada, Finland, and Sweden) in a round robin format. I don’t care what sport it is, when I hear that, I’m 100% watching and every casual sports fan should be too. Hell, every American should be watching. The first matchup between USA and Canada was electric and I expect the championship tonight to top it. Just look at the first 9 seconds of the matchup where each team couldn’t help themselves from throwing fists.
This is why this move was genius by the NHL. We now have casual sports fans like myself looking forward to an NHL All-Star game. Our nation may be more divided than it has ever been, but there’s always two things we can come together and get behind on: sports and the pride for our country.
I’m pumped to crack open a beer, get the grill going and figure out some more masculine stuff to do while I watch our country kick Canada’s backside. I hope other leagues see the excitement and support for it and adopt something similar for their All-Star formats. Adam Silver and the NBA could use some help (although they may need to start acquiring some more European talent). Either way, we have something to watch tonight that will let us reminisce on one of the greatest movies and stories of all time, “Miracle”. Nothing can beat that ending, but I hope we have something to compare it to after tonight. Here’s a little hype video to get the blood pumping.
Cheers.