Stanley Cup Playoffs to take intensity from 4 Nations Face-Off to next level

The 4 Nations Face-Off was fantastic.

When Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States played in Montreal and Boston from Feb. 12-20, the passion and level of play drew a huge audience of hardcore and casual fans.

Canada’s 3-2 overtime win against the United States in the championship game drew 16.1 million viewers across North America, making it the second-most watched hockey game across the continent in a decade.

Now it’s time for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. If you’re a hardcore fan, you already know. If you’re a casual fan -- especially if you’re someone who discovered the NHL during the 4 Nations -- you’re about to find out.

There’s nothing like it.

The 4 Nations Face-Off was special, because it was the first best-on-best tournament since the World Cup of Hockey 2016; many of the best players in the world were boiled down to four teams, and they played for their countries in a charged environment.

But the player pool was limited to, well, players from only four nations. It was seven games over two weeks. The Stanley Cup Playoffs will include players of all nationalities. This will be 16 teams playing four rounds of best-of-7 series over two months.

The 4 Nations Face-Off was a sprint. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are a marathon -- in which you must earn the right to compete during a six-month, 82-game regular season that eliminates half of the League.

Winning an international gold medal is awesome. The Stanley Cup is considered the hardest trophy in sports to win, however, because of the incredible physical, mental and emotional investment it takes.

Can you guess the most-watched hockey game across North America over the past decade? It was the Florida Panthers’ 2-1 win against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final last season, which drew 16.3 million viewers across the continent. Edmonton was down 3-0 in that series. The Oilers refused to quit. The Panthers passed a gut check.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs will feature many heroes and villains from the 4 Nations, plus superstars who didn’t have a chance to compete. And this time there will be no Canada, no favorite going for a fourth consecutive title, although there will be five teams from Canada, including the Montreal Canadiens, trying to become the first Canadian team to win the Cup since the Canadiens in 1993.

Connor McDavid scored the overtime goal that gave Canada the 4 Nations title, a signature moment. But the Oilers captain is hungry to hoist the Cup after coming so close last season. He was so heartbroken after that Game 7 loss that he declined to come out and accept the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs’ most valuable player.

Nathan MacKinnon was MVP of the 4 Nations for Canada. The Avalanche captain ranked second in the NHL with 116 points (32 goals, 84 assists) this season and is looking to add to the Stanley Cup championship he won in 2022.

Canada’s Jordan Binnington won the goaltending duel against the United States’ Connor Hellebuyck in the 4 Nations championship game. Now they’ll face each other again in the Western Conference First Round. Binnington, who won the Cup with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, went 13-3-1 after the 4 Nations to help the Blues make the playoffs. Hellebuyck led the NHL with 47 wins this season to help the Winnipeg Jets win the Presidents’ Trophy as the top regular-season team.

The Tkachuk brothers played together for the first time for the United States in the 4 Nations, Matthew picking a fight two seconds into a round-robin game against Canada in Montreal on Feb. 15, Brady picking his own one second later. Now they will play in the playoffs together for the first time, Matthew trying to repeat with the Panthers, Brady making his playoff debut with the Ottawa Senators. Can you imagine if they meet in the second round?

Finland’s Mikko Rantanen, who won the Cup with Colorado in 2022, is now playing against the Avalanche for the Dallas Stars in the first round. Sweden’s Victor Hedman is trying to win the Cup for the third time with the Tampa Bay Lightning after hoisting it in 2020 and 2021. We could go on and on.

Now think of some players in the playoffs who weren’t in the 4 Nations.

Start with Russia. Alex Ovechkin scored the 895th goal of his NHL career April 6, breaking Wayne Gretzky’s hallowed record, and will try to win the Cup with the Washington Capitals for the second time after hoisting it in 2018. Nikita Kucherov leads the NHL with 121 points (37 goals, 84 assists) in 77 games this season and will try to add to the championships he won with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021.

Russia has two goalies who are looking to hoist the Cup again too: Andrei Vasilevskiy, who did it with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021, and Sergei Bobrovsky, who did it with the Panthers last season.

Germany’s Leon Draisaitl led the NHL with 52 goals in 71 games this season and will try to win the Cup with the Oilers for the first time. In the first round, he’ll face Slovenia’s Anze Kopitar, one of the best defensive players in the NHL, who is trying to win the Cup for the third time with the Los Angeles Kings after hoisting it in 2012 and 2014.

The 4 Nations was fantastic. But bring on the 4 Rounds.