Players eager for return of best-on-best at with 4 Nations Face-Off

All photos courtesy of Getty Images

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And so, a door long closed in the hockey world opens once again.

The game’s best players will have the opportunity to don the jerseys of their home nations and measure themselves against their peers at the 4 Nations Face-Off this February.

After best-on-best hockey has lain dormant for many years, the tournament provides the chance to see the best players from Canada, the United States, Sweden and Finland, flex their considerable hockey muscles on a grand stage.

For some players, like Norris Trophy winning defenceman Erik Karlsson, the prospect of the 4 Nations Face-Off is a late-career opportunity to join the best that Sweden has to offer more than a decade after Sweden went toe-to-toe with Canada in the gold medal game at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, where Sweden took home silver.

It’s been more than eight years since Karlsson and the rest of Sweden’s top players were in Toronto for the World Cup of Hockey 2016 that included Team Europe, made up of players from smaller hockey nations on the continent, and Team North America, made up of players 23-and-under from Canada and the United States.

“You know, you see it very differently now than you did 10 years ago,” Karlsson acknowledged during a recent conversation in the Pittsburgh Penguins’ locker room.

“When the Sochi Olympics ended, you're like, ‘well, I'm going to get another chance hopefully in four years.’”

But it didn’t happen that way.

Karlsson was in consideration for the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver but didn’t make the team.

He played in Sochi, where he roomed with former Ottawa Senators teammate Daniel Alfredsson, creating memories that still resonate with Karlsson.

“So, it makes you realize how time goes really fast, especially, you know, as you get older and you stop and really reflect on things,” Karlsson said.

Now, it’s perhaps a young Leo Carlsson or Rasmus Dahlin who will end up making cherished memories with the iconic Karlsson in Montreal and Boston, where the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament will be held Feb. 12-20.  

NHL players are slated to return to the Olympics in 2026 and that is a tantalizing carrot at the end of the hockey stick, but for those selected for the 4 Nations Face-Off, including Karlsson, the focus is solely on the three round-robin games that will lead to a single winner-take-all championship at TD Garden.

“I'm very excited for the next upcoming year and a half, regarding the national team, which for me is a very big part of my career and something that I've always cherished a lot since I turned pro. And I feel very privileged to represent the times that I have,” Karlsson said. “And now you want to play as many as you can before the time is over. And you realize that a little bit more now than when you were 22.”

Speaking of being 22 years of age and already making a significant impact on the game of hockey, Minnesota Wild defenseman Brock Faber doesn’t have far to go when he visits family.

The runner-up for last year’s Calder Trophy as rookie of the year hails from Maple Grove, Minnesota, not far from the Wild’s home in St. Paul. Faber’s family are regulars at Wild games and maybe that’s why Team USA general manager Bill Guerin, who doubles as Faber’s GM with the Wild, immediately asked Faber to put his phone on speaker when he called him Thanksgiving weekend to tell him he was going to be part of Team USA’s 4 Nations roster.

“He knows me as a person well enough now to know how important my family is to me,” Faber said. “It just shows a lot about him. Just a really cool moment for us and definitely thankful that he decided to do that when he probably figured I was at home, because the first thing he said was ‘put me on speaker.’”

Not surprisingly, the Fabers very quickly began looking at possible travel to Montreal and Boston after hearing the good news.

Faber has international experience having played for Team USA at the world juniors in 2021 and 2022, as well as the 2022 Olympic Winter Games.

“Every time I get to play for USA Hockey, it's the coolest thing in the world for me and a huge honour to be able to play the game you love for your country and that's something I definitely don't take for granted,” Faber said. “Obviously it’s going to be a little different competition level from my previous outings in international tournaments.”

Faber pointed out that when he and his Wild teammates partake in video sessions, the players being highlighted are often the ones who make up the rosters for the other three teams in the competition, unless of course they’re Faber’s teammates with Team USA.

“So, walking into the same room as them and calling them your teammates all sharing the same goal is really cool,” Faber said. “Definitely a lot to learn from all those guys and it'll be just such a such a great experience.”

It’s an experience Faber will be able to share with teammate Matt Boldy, with whom he texted moments after Guerin’s Thanksgiving call. That’s not an insignificant factor given that the vast majority of players in this competition will be experiencing best-on-best in an international format for the first time.

Sidney Crosby is the only player who played at Vancouver 2010 who will take part in 4 Nations, and he is one of only seven players who were at Sochi 2014 who will be in Montreal and Boston.

Many players, like Faber and Boldy, have had the opportunity to play either at a world championship or the world juniors.

Then there are players like Devon Toews, for whom all of this is going to be brand new.

The 30-year-old is one of the rare players playing at such an elite level who has never played internationally for his country.

That is about to come to an end as Toews was named to Team Canada’s roster, where he will join Avalanche teammates Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar in the red and white.

“I think a lot of the guys in the league haven't had an opportunity at this level to play for Canada or any of the nations in a long time in something like this. So, I think everybody's pretty excited,” Toews said.

The fact Toews was named to the Canadian team came as a surprise to almost no one given his role with the Avalanche, helping lead the team to a Stanley Cup in 2022.   

That didn’t mean Toews has taken any of this for granted.

“The only thing we control is what we do on a daily basis,” Toews said. “Starting the season is kind of a showcase of yourself, playing your game and seeing if they like your game or not, if they think it suits what they're trying to build with the team.”

“As long as you're playing well and playing hard, that's about as good as you can do. There's no sense of overthinking it or thinking you have to play a certain way in order to be part of something like that” Toews added.

Will he feel some nerves when he walks into the Canadian locker room for the first practice in mid-February?

More like excitement at the opportunity.

“It's new, so I think there's always something new, something different,” Toews said.

Even if there are some butterflies, stepping onto the ice with his long-time NHL defensive partner and 2021-22 Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar, not to mention the Avalanche alternate captain and 2023-24 Ted Lindsay Award recipient, Nathan MacKinnon, should go a long way to smoothing things out.

“Yeah, that definitely helps. Guys that I know, guys that I enjoy playing with, good friends of mine as well,” Toews said. “Obviously, they know some of the guys on the team and we all kind of know other guys. The hockey world is well known to be a small community and everybody kind of knows everybody, so I don't think it will be hard to make friends there.”

One of the great dynamics of a tournament like this is that players who pour everything into keeping their team in the hunt for a Stanley Cup will suddenly, if only for a couple of weeks, play at a fever pitch with sworn NHL enemies while competing against teammates who they share a common goal with during the regular season.  

So, while Toews has the comfort of familiarity with Makar and MacKinnon, sitting a few feet away in the Avalanche locker room are Mikko Rantanen and Artturi Lehkonen preparing to swap their NHL colours for Finland’s national garb as 4 Nations Face-Off opponents.

“I'm obviously very excited,” Rantanen said. “First time for me playing in a tournament like this, where it's best-on-best in national teams. It's exciting to see Finland, we have a good team, a lot of good players in their prime. And obviously seeing Team Canada, U.S., Sweden, such great players they have in their lineups.”

Even though many players competing in the tournament might be thinking ahead to the prospect of the NHL returning to the Olympics, Rantanen has no doubt the competition in Montreal and Boston will be at the highest level for all four teams.

Rantanen isn’t a kid anymore. At age 28 with a Stanley Cup Championship under his belt, combined with his status as one of the league’s premier forwards, he’ll be one of the leaders on Team Finland along with another fellow Stanley Cup winner, Aleksander Barkov.

Already there is great anticipation at how the Finns will measure up against the other three talent-stacked squads.

“It's probably going to be more excitement than maybe nervous,” Rantanen said about joining his countrymen in Montreal for the first games of the tournament.

Given that Finland is a small hockey nation compared to Canada or the U.S., Rantanen figures most of the Finns have a good knowledge of each other.

“I think most of the guys know each other from somewhere, or they've seen each other,” Rantanen said. “And so maybe that helps a little bit with the team chemistry, that we already know each other. But yeah, I think it's excitement for everybody else as well.”

Rantanen and Lehkonen share a bond, obviously, while Rasmus Ristolainen grew up in the same hometown as Rantanen. He also played with Sebastian Aho, Niko Mikkola, Roope Hintz and Patrik Laine on the Finnish national junior team.

“So, there's a bunch of guys I know from before. And obviously I'm excited to meet the new guys that I haven't met yet,” Rantanen said. “They're all good players, so it's exciting.”