NHL All-Star Game will never matter again after 4 Nations Face-Off success

Every major professional sports league is starting to face the harsh reality that traditional All-Star games are a thing of the past and no longer relevant in the modern sports culture. 

The NFL has pretty much already done away with its game, replacing the Pro Bowl with a series of flag football exhibitions.

The NBA All-Star game has become something of a joke, where even the skills competition has become irrelevant. 

It was a similar story for the NHL, which has tried countless formats over the years to try and juice interest back into the game while also punishing players with one-game suspensions for backing out of the game. 

In the NHL's case, it has at least found a temporary solution to the problem with the creation of this year's 4 Nation's Face-Off tournament involving the United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland. 

It is a makeshift best-on-best tournament, and the early returns on it have been staggeringly good for the league.

Not only have the first four games through Saturday been elite, high-level hockey, but they have also been remarkably intense with no shortage of drama. Saturday's United States vs. Canada game (which the United States won by a 3-1 margin) was one of the most anticipated hockey games of the decade and more than delivered on the hype.

It also did monster ratings in the United States, averaging more than 4.4 million viewers, making it the most-watched non-Stanley Cup Final hockey game since the 2019 season, per ESPN.