4 Nаtіonѕ Fаce-Off Remіnіѕcent Of An Introductіon To Old-Scһool Hockey To A 13-Yeаr Old In Bloomіngton, Mіnneѕotа

The 4 Nations Face-Off is setting a standard for other pro leagues to follow during their All-Star weekends

I remember that 20-minute drive from Eden Prairie to the Met Center in 1982 when I was 13 years old, going to see the Minnesota North Stars play.

A transplant from Las Vegas, I didn't know ice hockey outside of Mike Bossy and the New York Islanders or Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers because they were seemingly always splashed across the pages of my Sports Illustrated.

But I learned, especially about the North Stars. From the leadership of Neal Broten and the fast-paced play of Dino Ciccarelli to the physicality and fighting of Willi Plett, who opted not to wear a helmet because it was optional for certain players back then. Helmets became mandatory in the NHL for incoming players before the 1979 campaign, however, players who signed contracts before June 1, 1979, were allowed to continue playing without helmets if they chose to do so.

Plett, ever the vicious enforcer, chose the latter.

To me, that - and Minnetonka and Edina High School's fierce rivalry in Section 6 - was my introduction to hockey.

I've covered the Vegas Golden Knights since they first stepped foot on the ice in 2017, and it's been quite a ride. Everyone knows their backstory by now, so no need to reminisce.

Yet for the first time since becoming a part of the hockey media, Saturday night felt like old-school hockey, fisticuffs and all.

Here we were led to believe the 4 Nations Face-Off - an alternative to All-Star Weekend - would provide us with good old-fashioned international rivalries featuring the skills of the finest hockey players in the world, a few fun games during pool play leading up to the championship game, and then back to business with the NHL's regular season.

No shot this could get out of hand, right?

GROUP TEXT

I would have loved to be in the group message with the Tkachuk boys, Matthew and Brady, and JT Miller.

Nine seconds is all it took for the most anticipated international game in quite some time to produce more action than the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson spectacle.

Bob Arum or Oscar De La Hoya couldn't have promoted a better fight if they tried.

Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Hagel set the tone by dropping the gloves at the opening puck drop and Brady Tkachuk and Sam Bennett threw hands immediately after the ensuing faceoff. Moments later, after a small scrum in front of Canada goaltender Jordan Binnington, Miller and Colton Parayko duked it out.

The only thing that might've topped it would have been Binnington skating to center ice and challenging US goalie Connor Hellebuyck.

Canada coach Jon Cooper called it "mayhem."

Marvelous mayhem, indeed.

Took me right back to that bright white building at one end of the Metropolitan Sports Center, opposite the stadium that once starred the Minnesota Vikings' Purple People Eaters and Minnesota Twins stars like Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew.

It was Plett dropping the gloves with Chicago's Al Secord when the Norris Division was truly a black-and-blue division, littered with furious and intense rivalries all over again.

The remaining 59 minutes and 51 seconds of US-Canada were just as spectacular, thanks to the pregame boos during the Star Spangled Banner, as the pride of players wearing their country on the front of their jerseys brought out the competitive spirit running their veins.

It had the White House posting about it on "X".

"Both teams have a whole bunch of brilliant, skilled players," Cooper said. "You can watch an NHL game where the shots are 45-35, there are chances all over the place and it's run-and-gun.

"But when you have this quality of player and they all check, that's why the shots are 20-20 (26-23, to be exact). That's why there is no space. The margin of error is razor-thin."

And I'll take that over deflated All-Star events other sports pass off as entertainment but aren't that entertaining at all.

SETTING A STANDARD

The NBA held its skills competition and slam dunk contest around the same time Team USA was pulling away for a 3-1 victory. And if I read right - because I had college hoops and Athletes Unlimited women's hoops on the other two televisions on my wall - two players were disqualified for cheating in the skills competition and a guy who has mostly played for the Orlando Magic's G-League team won the slam dunk title for the third straight year.

I used to watch All-Star Saturday every year, religiously. I think the last time I was fully invested in a slam dunk competition was when Vince Carter let us know, "It's. Over."

As for the All-Star game itself, well, let's just say a lack of competitiveness has been an issue in recent years and led the NBA and NBPA to reportedly address the importance of effort moving forward. There are no gloves to drop in basketball, but playing defense might be nice.

In the NFL, fans complain annually about the lack of physicality compared to what we used to see, when the league's best players competed in an actual competition the week after the Super Bowl so those players could compete, too. The way things are now, we might as well go full throttle with the league's backing of flag football and implement that into the Pro Bowl.

Oh wait a minute, the league tried that in 2022 with a flag football game and other tasks to accrue points with the conference gaining the most points earning the trophy and bragging rights for the year.

Major League Baseball still has its home run derby, and for diehard fans, it remains the same. I suppose that is fine. People love to see the long ball, especially when a hitter is down to his last few outs and goes on a hitting tear. And you can't take much away from the game itself when you ask players to go out and play baseball, right?

The WNBA has its own set of skill competitions and a shooting contest, and this upcoming season All-Star weekend will likely shatter viewership numbers with the event in Indianapolis, hosted by Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. Enough said there.

But nobody is going to take away what we've seen through the first two rounds of the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal and are now anticipating in Boston this week.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Sweden has been to overtime in its first two games, and after getting routed by the Americans in the opening round, Finland topped the Swedes in extra time on Saturday.

Sure, there have been a couple of injuries, including Vegas' Shea Theodore who will be week-to-week when the regular season resumes.

But what about some of the inspired play by the less-than-headlined names like Golden Knights defenseman Noah Hanifin, whose lockdown performance against Connor McDavid limited the greatest player in the world after he scored the game's first goal.

And did anyone have Jake Guentzel scoring two goals on their 4 Nations Bingo Card? Heck, he was +800 at the sportsbook to score just one goal.

Man, what an event. The boos, the fights, the hard hits.