The NHL and NHLPA’s 4 Nations Face-Off is upon us. The tournament, which replaces the normal All-Star game, is a chance for NHL players to audition and get a tune-up before heading to the Winter Olympics in 2026 for the first time since 2014.

It’s as close to best-on-best international hockey we’ve had in some time, but with only Canada, Sweden, USA, and Finland attending, some of the game’s biggest stars — who will undoubtedly be at the Olympics next year — aren’t going to be in attendance.

That being said, this tournament should be a ton of fun, and we’ve got Vancouver Canucks fans covered in everything they need to know for the 4 Nations Face-Off.

Kevin Lankinen is at the tournament for Finland but may not see much action. Juuse Saros has already been confirmed as Finland’s starter for game one vs. the USA. Elias Pettersson is there for Team Sweden, and head coach Rick Tocchet is serving as one of Jon Cooper’s assistants behind Team Canada’s bench. Quinn Hughes won’t be in attendance as he rests up after suffering an injury a couple of weeks ago, and ex-Canuck JT Miller will suit up for Team USA.

Play kicks off on Wednesday, February 12th, when Canada faces Sweden (5 PM PT). If you’re a Canucks fan, you’re likely cheering for Team Canada, but you’re also intrigued to see how Elias Pettersson performs playing alongside his countrymen. This won’t be a game you want to miss.

On Thursday, February 13th, USA and Finland will do battle (5 PM PT). We will see JT Miller playing on USA’s third line in this game, as he took line rushes centring a line with Brady Tkachuk and Matt Boldy.

Then it’ll be Sweden vs. Finland (10 AM PT) and Canada vs. USA (5 PM PT) on Saturday, February 15th. On Sunday, two teams will head home following the two games between Canada and Finland (10 AM PT), followed by USA vs. Sweden (5 PM PT).

The two teams with the best record after their three games will move onto the championship, which is set for Thursday, February 20th (5 PM PT).

At the time of this writing, Canada is the slight favourite over Team USA, according to most sportsbooks. Sweden is a bit of a distant third as a longshot to win the tournament, and a banged-up Finland team finds themselves as heavy underdogs heading into the festivities.

Here are each team’s line combinations, according to DailyFaceoff.com:

Now, as you can see, there is a reason that the US and Canada are the two favourites in this tournament.

If Team USA had Canucks captain Quinn Hughes at their disposal, it’d be hard to say they wouldn’t be the heavy favourites.

But in a tournament like this, it’s anyone’s game. Losing your first game puts you behind the 8-ball big time, because you’ve only got two more games after that. There’s no time to get used to playing with one another or to have any sort of slow start.

We expect to see all the teams come out flying, and for teams like Sweden and Finland to really focus on the details of their team game and try to pull off some upsets.

Despite being an NHL tournament, the 4 Nations Face-Off will use a more traditional international point structure. A regulation win is worth three points, an overtime or shootout victory is worth two, and an overtime loss is worth one point.

As for overtime, the 3-on-3 sequence will be 10 minutes long, rather than the normal five minutes we see in the NHL regular season. And yes, if there is no winner at the end of that ten minutes, there will be a shootout. Traditional NHL playoff overtime rules will be deployed if the championship game is tied at the end of regulation.

It all kicks off tonight, and you can read our preview of tonight’s game between Canada and Sweden by clicking here!