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Via The Hockey Writers

The 4 Nations Face-Off Without Russia Is Pointless

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers | By Cory Tucek | Last updated Feb 14, 2025 8:25 AM ET

Did I miss something? When was the first round of the 4 Nations Face-Off where Team Russia was eliminated? The NHL would never hold a hockey tournament to find out who the best in the world is without including the best players in the world, would they?

Well, the Gary Bettman Invitational, rebranded as the 4 Nations Face-Off, is exactly that—a tournament to find out who the best in the world is without including everyone in the world. The Russian Hockey team has been banned from all international play due to the ongoing conflict between their country and Ukraine. Geopolitical issues aside, a country cannot win this tournament and claim they are the best in the world without having Russia in the mix.

A host of other teams are missing as well. How is this the best-on-best in the world when Czechia, winner of the 1998 Olympic gold medal, is not invited? Wouldn’t seeing Anze Kopitar and Slovenia on this stage be nice? You can’t invite everyone, but only inviting Canada, Finland, Sweden, and the United States seems arbitrary. It’s not even an NHL best-on-best tournament when some of their biggest stars are excluded.

All-Time NHL Greats Missing Out

Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin, two all-time greats and arguably the two best to ever come out of Russia, will likely be on a beach watching, or not watching, this tournament play out. While many players voted for this tournament as a prelude to their 2026 Winter Olympic participation, I am sure they would also like to prove themselves against the best competition in the world.

The NHL claims their initiative is to reinvigorate the interest in international hockey competition and grow the game. But if we’ve learned anything about the league, it’s that when there is an opportunity to grow the game, they will blow it.

Don’t believe me? Try finding a hockey game to watch on any given night in the United States. You need several streaming services just to keep up with the game you love. They don’t do nearly as much to promote their stars as the other professional sports leagues, and they certainly do very little to protect them on the ice. This league stares gift horses in the mouth as often as they turn a blind eye to cheap shots against their best players.

Ovechkin and Malkin vs Crosby and McDavid, that’s how you get the average sports fan to tune in. Could you imagine the hype the league could generate around Ovechkin being on the verge of surpassing Wayne Gretzky’s goal total? They could be showcasing Sergei Bobrovsky as he tries to follow up his Stanley Cup championship with a win on the international stage, that would be must-see TV. The Russian and other European players who have been excluded would have elevated the tournament.

How about Team Canada’s power play versus any Russian goaltender? What about watching Team Europe’s Kopitar drive every great center crazy with his defensive work? Wouldn’t that have been more fun?

Whoever wins this tournament will be deemed the ‘best in the world’ without having to defeat either Bobrovsky, Andrei Vasilevskiy or Igor Shesterkin. The winner wouldn’t have had to face down a power-play that included Nikita Kucherov and Artemi Panarin. So it cannot be called a best-on-best tournament.

NHL’s Failure to Promote Itself

The NHL could have offered us a Team Europe, as they did with Team North America in the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, to let at least most of the league’s elite talent compete. Instead, this is just the latest in a long list of self-inflicted wounds the NHL has endured. It’s the old mantra, this is the ‘best sport, but worst league’.

Hopefully, the political winds can change, and somehow, Russia can be unbanned before the 2026 Olympics. It would be nice to see Ovechkin and Malkin play in the Olympics one more time before they retire, and we can truly see the best of the best. In the meantime, the other four countries can have an easier path to victory. McDavid can maybe finally win something for the first time in his career, and then we can return to our regularly scheduled programming.

The general vibe I was getting from this tournament was one of obligation. We aren’t obligated to watch, so maybe we won’t. But the first night was pretty thrilling, so I guess it has me, the regular hockey fan pulled in. But what about the average sports fan? Do they care about this tournament? Do they even know it is happening? If they don’t, and it’s not truly a best-on-best tournament, then this is just an unnecessary two-week break in the middle of the NHL season. Nothing grows the sport like that.