How the Canada vs United States Hockey game showed why the NHL is the best professional sports league in North America

Okay, so that USA-Canada hockey game Saturday night? Seriously, it was wild. Two seconds in, a fight erupted between U.S. forward Matthew Tkachuk and Canada forward Brandon Hagel. Then, a second later, another one broke out between U.S. forward Brady Tkachuk (who didn’t want his brother to be alone in the penalty box) and Canada forward Sam Bennett (ironically Matthew’s teammate in the NHL). Then, six seconds later, we had another fight between U.S. forward J.T. Miller and Canada defenseman Colton Parayko. For those keeping count, that’s three fights in less than ten seconds. At that time, there were three faceoffs and only one shot with 32 total minutes of penalties (Miller got an extra minor for cross-checking). Team USA would come out on top 3-1 and clinch a spot in the finals, but this shows why the NHL is the best professional sports league in North America. 

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, I will give you a two-second summary. The NHL Four Nations Face-Off is a new international tournament featuring teams representing Canada, the USA, Sweden, and Finland, replacing the NHL All-Star Weekend in 2025. It showcases top NHL talent in a highly competitive international format.

Even if this is just a one-year thing, it had so much more energy and excitement then any all-star game from any other league. That's exactly why the NHL is the best. Those guys were going hard. It wasn't some glorified exhibition game where everyone just coasts. It was a real, actual game, and nobody was holding back. Those fights right at the start? Proof that nobody's scared to get hurt – they're playing for keeps. The whole thing was just insane and so exciting to watch. Replacing the All-Star game with this? Genius. It just goes to show, the NHL is where it's at for pure, unadulterated, edge-of-your-seat hockey. 

I watch this and then when the NBA all-star game and see players jogging back taking random shots they normally wouldn’t take I get frustrated because I wonder why it is called an “all-star game” when the players don’t care at all. I watch this and then I look at the NFL Pro Bowl game which has just turned into backyard games and flag football – and even then, the stars never want to go to that anymore. So we are left third, fourth and even fifth alternates who may have had a good year but are in no way shape or form Pro Bowl-worthy. At least the NHL game is an actual hockey game. The closest thing to what the NHL has is the MLB World Baseball Classic, but that happens once every four years, and until last year some of the stars for the USA never went because it wasn’t worth the injury risk.

The good news is that we will get this same matchup in the finals. Hopefully, it will be as good as this game. And on that note it's stupid that no Capitals are on any of the teams but we will take the week of rest!