For the first time in nearly a decade, the NHL will host a best-on-best competition with the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament that starts on Wednesday night.
The four nations include the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden, with each team sporting the top players from their home country to win the inaugural tournament.
The 4 Nations Face-Off replaces the annual tradition of an NHL All-Star weekend at this time of year and is a warm up for what’s to come in 2026, with an All-Star Game on Long Island at UBS Arena, home of the New York Islanders and the league’s return to the Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy this time next winter.
Here’s how to watch, the format, rosters and more for the highly anticipated inaugural debut of the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament:
Each country will play one game against the other three countries during the round robin stage. Teams will earn three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime/shootout win and one point for if they lose in the overtime/shootout. The two teams with the best records will face off against one other in the championship game.
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Games will be played under NHL rules, with the lone exception being that overtime will now feature 10 minutes of 3-on-3 sudden death throughout the round robin portion unlike the NHL’s five minutes. If it’s still tied after 10 minutes, the game will then go to a shootout. During the championship game, overtime is just as it is in NHL playoff overtime: 5-on-5 hockey for 20-minute periods with the next team that scores a goal wins the game.
4 Nations Face-Off will take place from Wednesday, Feb. 12 until Thursday, Feb. 20.
The beginning of the round-robin portion of the tournament will take place at the Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens.
Then, the last two round-robin games will be played at TD Garden, home of the Boston Bruins.
The tournament begins Wednesday night with team Canada taking on team Sweden at 8 p.m. in Montreal.
Team USA makes their tournament debut one day later when they take on Finland on Thursday, Feb. 13 at 8 p.m.
All seven contests will air on the likes of ESPN, TNT or ABC throughout the tournament.
For streaming options, ESPN+, Fubo and Sling will carry the ESPN and ABC games while Sling and MAX will broadcast the TNT contests.
Here’s the full schedule of date, time and tv info for each game:
The rosters for all four nations have officially been finalized as of Monday night. Here the full list of each nations player, number, position and what NHL team they play for:
