“4 Nations facing off,” is a phrase that will be seared into the memories of hockey fans for decades to come, even if the tournament it’s advertising for is only going to be a one-time deal.

The NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off kicked off in Montreal on Wednesday, with Team Canada – featuring Vancouver Canucks head coach, Rick Tocchet, serving as an assistant coach – opening the seven-game series against Elias Pettersson and Team Sweden.

Those two countries, along with the United States and Finland, will play three games against one another before the top two advance to a championship final in Boston next Thursday. Thanks to pandemics and circumstances, it’s the first time NHL players have taken part in a best-on-best international competition since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey a near decade ago.

With so many storylines to follow over the next week, we wanted to add a few quick insights and ideas to keep an eye on over the next eight days of competition.

1. It’s weird to do a “best-on-best tournament” without Leon Draisaitl (Germany), David Pasternak (Czechia) and Alex Ovechkin (the IIHF team formerly known as Russia). Putting geopolitical aspects aside, there was an easy solution here: Long live Team Rest of Europe.

2. But even with the low stakes of the series for fans, that’s not true for the players. At the very least, this tournament is an audition ahead of next year’s Winter Olympics in Italy, and they’ll be playing to impress the folks putting those teams together. All seven games will have the intensity of a normal Olympics or World Cup, even with just four teams competing. So even if you’re not really excited about it now, by the championship game next week, we’ll be all in.

3. It sucks that Quinn Hughes won’t be taking part in the 4 Nations festivities. Quinn would’ve easily slotted into Team USA’s top pairing alongside Adam Fox, quarterbacked the power play and been tasked with checking the best players in the world. But he’s earned the time to rest and let his oblique and lingering hand injury recover. While that decision does benefit the Canucks, he respectfully didn’t owe them as much, seeing as how half that damage is due to dragging the team to wins all year. As long as he had the final decision, there was no wrong answer for him to play or not.

4. Even without Hughes, this is, unfortunately, the Americans’ tournament to lose. They’ve stacked their forward corps with speed and skill and have easily the strongest goalie depth in the tourney between Connor Hellebuyck and Jake Oettinger. Imagine having Auston Matthews slotted in on your second line.

5. No Quinn means there’s only one Canucks skater left representing their country. Elias Pettersson has been centring the top line between Filip Forsberg and Adrian Kempe during Sweden’s first practices, and the Face-Off presents a really good opportunity for EP40 to recapture some vintage magic.

The Tre Kronor won’t live or die by Petey’s play in the tourney, but he could easily be the X-factor in a potential upset. At the very least, hopefully, Pettersson will come back to the Canucks with renewed energy and fun after playing three games with the high-flying Swedes. If I had to choose between a Canada win or an MVP performance from Pettersson in tonight’s opener, we’d rather see the latter.

6. Canada is always going to be at least a co-favourite to win, but their goaltending is a massive question mark. Leaving Logan Thompson at home is easily the most controversial choice any team in this tournament made building their roster. Bruce Cassidy and Peter DeBoer – former head coaches of Thompson’s with the Vegas Golden Knights –allegedly both argued against adding him based on past experiences with the Golden Knights. I choose to believe this is the anti-left-handed goalie agenda at work, but that’s just to help me sleep better at night.

Team Canada’s final platoon of Jordan Binnington, Adin Hill, and Sam Montembeault has two Stanley Cups on their combined resume, but they’re a far cry from the days when Canada had names like Luongo, Price, Brodeur, and Fleury to choose from.

Canada’s goalies always face the most scrutiny in tournaments like these, but the noise will get way, way louder if Binnington or Hill looks as shaky as they have in recent NHL play.

7. Kevin Lankinen will start games for Finland in this tournament. Finland has the longest odds of going the distance in this tournament, and it’s doubtful that Juuse Saros will start all three games. If his former Nashville Predators teammate stumbles, Lankinen is clearly next in line for the net, and we think he’ll rise to the occasion.

8. The World Cup of Hockey coming back in 2028 is such a slam dunk for the NHL. The league and NHLPA have hit so many self-inflicted roadblocks when they’ve tried to solidify an international schedule, so we really hope this one sticks.

And what’s more encouraging is the league seems to be taking this attempt way more seriously. They’re planning to play the tournaments mid-season like the Olympics, they’re accepting bids from more than just NHL cities, and there’ve been rumblings of a European qualifying tournament to fill out the 8-team pool. If you want the World Cup to gain interest and grow the game, treating it like a truly serious best-on-best tournament is the way to do it.