Four Nations Face-Off Schedule

[SPF6ty9]

I don't understand why people on this site are so anti-this tourney. We've never seen Crosby, McDavid, and MacKinnon on a Team Canada together before. That alone is worth the viewership. Who cares how it got there, at least that is finally happening. Nobody is phoning it in when they have their country colours on their chest.

 

[Erik Alfredsson]

I don't understand why people on this site are so anti-this tourney. We've never seen Crosby, McDavid, and MacKinnon on a Team Canada together before. That alone is worth the viewership. Who cares how it got there, at least that is finally happening. Nobody is phoning it in when they have their country colours on their chest.

I think it's a mix of it being mid-season (and not the Olympics) with only 4 teams competing making it seem kind of awkward, and also maybe a lack of confidence due to Canada's recent performances in international tournaments being terrible and way below their standards.

 

[Micklebot]

I don't understand why people on this site are so anti-this tourney. We've never seen Crosby, McDavid, and MacKinnon on a Team Canada together before. That alone is worth the viewership. Who cares how it got there, at least that is finally happening. Nobody is phoning it in when they have their country colours on their chest.

The issue for me is the NHL regular season is far more compelling right now, and this just derails that momentum. We're at the point in the season where wins and losses really start to matter, and the standings have never been tighter (in the east at least) so slamming on the breaks to show a tournament with zero history and expecting me to care about it is a tough sell.

This should have been done before xmas if they wanted to hype up interest in hockey imo. I also don't really care about seeing n Crosby, McDavid, and MacKinnon on a team together, all great players, but there's no real story there other than good players playing together. There are more compelling stories with team USA (Tkachuk brothers and Hughes brothers prior to Quinn pulling out).

Then you have guys like Kucherov, Panarin, Draisaitl, Stutzle, Pastrnak, Marchenko and Necas. all top 30 in scoring but no team to play on. That's a lot of top talent that's ineligible for what's supposed to be a best on best tournament.

 

[SPF6ty9]

The issue for me is the NHL regular season is far more compelling right now, and this just derails that momentum. We're at the point in the season where wins and losses really start to matter, and the standings have never been tighter (in the east at least) so slamming on the breaks to show a tournament with zero history and expecting me to care about it is a tough sell.

This should have been done before xmas if they wanted to hype up interest in hockey imo. I also don't really care about seeing n Crosby, McDavid, and MacKinnon on a team together, all great players, but there's no real story there other than good players playing together. There are more compelling stories with team USA (Tkachuk brothers and Hughes brothers prior to Quinn pulling out).

Then you have guys like Kucherov, Panarin, Draisaitl, Stutzle, Pastrnak, Marchenko and Necas. all top 30 in scoring but no team to play on. That's a lot of top talent that's ineligible for what's supposed to be a best on best tournament.

To me the story is the great players that are there finally getting a chance to play together. And connecting the 2 best players of the past generation, Crosby and McDavid, while Crosby is still playing well, is not just a story but it's history. Olympics will be great in 2 years, but by then Crosby could be like Gretzky in Nagano where he makes the team but not as the contributor he still can be today.

And then throw in the political backdrop between Canada/USA at the moment and that makes that game all the more compelling.

I won't argue that the execution isn't perfect, in terms of including all the NHL stars. And I couldn't care less about whatever venue/tournament it's played in. But having the best Canadian hockey players wearing a national jersey, playing against the best from other countries; that to me is compelling even if it's played in Siberia at 3am with Dean Brown telling jokes all game long as commentary.

 

[Micklebot]

To me the story is the great players that are there finally getting a chance to play together. And connecting the 2 best players of the past generation, Crosby and McDavid, while Crosby is still playing well, is not just a story but it's history. Olympics will be great in 2 years, but by then Crosby could be like Gretzky in Nagano where he makes the team but not as the contributor he still can be today.

And then throw in the political backdrop between Canada/USA at the moment and that makes that game all the more compelling.

I won't argue that the execution isn't perfect, in terms of including all the NHL stars. And I couldn't care less about whatever venue/tournament it's played in. But having the best Canadian hockey players wearing a national jersey, playing against the best from other countries; that to me is compelling even if it's played in Siberia at 3am with Dean Brown telling jokes all game long as commentary.

I don't begrudge anyone for being pumped about it, I just personally am not all that interested for the reasons I mentioned.