Last year, at the NHL’s annual All-Star weekend, commissioner Gary Bettman announced that in 2025, the NHL would take a break from the All-Star Game and its festivities. Instead, its mid-season break turned into the 4 Nations Face-Off, a tournament featuring the best-on-best hockey with Canada, USA, Sweden and Finland all taking place. Fast forward to now, and it’s clear why the league decided to make this move.
All-Star festivities across sports as a whole have been on the decline. The NBA has been at the forefront of criticism over the last few seasons for the players showing a lack of effort on the court. The NFL went as far as to cancel the Pro Bowl in 2022, replacing it with a flag football game instead. The NHL has suffered through similar issues. Just a season ago, fans witnessed superstar Nikita Kucherov show no effort in the skills competition, which takes place the night before the actual game. His performance was so poor that it led to fans booing him, which he later encouraged and laughed about.
Most importantly, the NHL All-Star weekend had lost its luster. The events were changing, and players were beginning to opt out of the festivities altogether. The skills competition became watered down and now relied on gimmicks more than ever. Viewership was even down from years past as it tallied lower than 1.4 million viewers. The writing for the event was on the wall.
While somewhat surprising, the announcement of the 4 Nations Face-Off was a breath of fresh air. It brought best-on-best international hockey back to the NHL for the first time since the NHL hosted the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. This was even longer than the last time the NHL featured its players in the Olympics, which was in 2014.
It was never a question of whether these types of tournaments could survive. The fan support was always there, and the support from the players was even louder. Matthew Tkachuk, Patrik Laine and Dylan Larkin have voiced positive opinions about the tournament. However, there were still concerns about whether a tournament like this could replace something like the All-Star Weekend or grow the game to gain enough interest for the future of international Hockey.
Those doubts were immediately put to rest. Game one of the 4 Nations Face-Off had Sweden and Canada go into overtime after Sweden pulled off a 3-1 comeback in the third period. It wasn’t until 6:06 into the Overtime period when Mitch Marner, playing for Team Canada, found the back of the net to beat Sweden. The fans were electric, the players were into it, and the product was outstanding. Over 4 million viewers tuned into this matchup, a significant spike compared to last season’s All-Star game.
Team USA and Canada faced each other twice. The first game was in the round-robin stage of the tournament and the fourth game overall. The game took social media by storm, with both teams fighting three times in the opening nine seconds.
It introduced people to hockey and made a potential rematch of the two teams highly desired. The rematch occurred on the biggest stage, the tournament’s championship game. The game ended in Overtime, with one of the sport’s brightest stars, Connor McDavid, winning it for Canada. The ratings were record-setting, drawing over 16 million viewers in North America. It broke records for ESPN and showed the NHL just how important International events are for the sport.
Next season, the NHL will be displayed on a much larger scale. Last year, the league announced that for the first time since 2014, the NHL will return to the Winter Olympics starting in 2026. Then, during the 4 Nations Face-Off, it was officially announced that the NHL would bring back the World Cup of Hockey beginning in 2028.
Underneath the attention, though, are concerns about the future. The All-Star game is set to resume in 2026 before players leave for the Winter Olympics. The NHL claims that the game isn’t going anywhere, but is that certain?
Fans are significantly more interested in competitive hockey than the gimmicky product the NHL offers its fan base every year. However, the league canceled the All-Star game for a season, so it isn’t guaranteed that fans will suddenly decide to tune in.
It puts the NHL in a tough situation. Is it still worth holding an All-Star weekend annually? Picking out host cities and funding fan and player festivities is costly. The game’s viewership has been hovering, and ratings have decreased for a decade. The fans no longer enjoy it, and the players show no energy throughout the event. Considering what the Four Nations Face-Off did, there is absolutely reason to believe that the All-Star game could be phased out.
I remember when the league announced that South Florida would host the All-Star game in 2021. However, due to COVID-19, the festivities were postponed and didn’t return to Florida until 2023.
Seeing your favorite players come to your favorite team’s stadium used to mean something. When South Florida finally hosted the event, it wasn’t the same. The skills competition had a new format, with half of the events filmed days before the actual event. Fans who went were paying too much money to see on the Jumbotron that some events happened on a golf course a day earlier.
It’s a problem that affects sports in general. The NBA has suffered from the same issue for years. The once hugely popular dunk contest is no longer the spectacle it was.
Fans yearn for the excitement that these events used to bring. Unfortunately, only time will tell where the All-Star game will end up in years ahead. The NHL brings countries together to breathe a new life into the sport that has been dying for international hockey, which is incredible. It also serves as a reminder that the All-Star game is struggling. Until then, a new era of hockey has been beginning, and the NHL knows it.
