ESPN Is Treating 4 Nations Finale Like a Stanley Cup Final

ESPN is leaning in to coverage of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off like it’s Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Heading into Thursday night’s championship game between the USA and Canada, top ESPN hockey talents like P.K. Subban are appearing nonstop across studio programming. They’re making waves, too.

On Tuesday’s Get Up, Subban raised eyebrows by passionately contrasting the pride of NHL players during the 4 Nations tournament with the apathy of NBA stars during their All-Star weekend.

“You’ve got to be on the court. You’ve got to be there. When you’re there, you’ve got to go all in,” Subban said. “The fans got to feel that they’re getting their money’s worth. Right now there’s a big difference between what the NHL’s doing with those events and what the NBA’s doing. 4 Nations works because the players are all in.”

Instead of running away from the three fistfights in the first nine seconds of Saturday’s USA vs. Canada, Subban said it’s exactly what hockey fans wanted to see. “What do fans resonate with? They resonate with what’s real. You got to fight sometimes for your country,” he said. “You got to go out there and leave it on the ice because those people are paying the price of admission.”

I think Subban has a point. The hockey world is thrilled with its shiny new international tournament, while NBA players and critics are holding a circular firing squad around All-Star weekend. 

On Tuesday, ESPN filmed an interview with the Tkachuk family over pizza. The brothers, Matthew and Brady, memorably kicked off Team USA’s 3–1 win over Canada on Saturday with a pair of scraps. Their dad, Keith Tkachuk, one of the greatest power forwards in NHL history, will appear on ESPN’s Thursday night coverage. The network’s flagship SportsCenter will be on location at TD Garden in Boston. To offer maximum access, the Walt Disney Co. will unlock Thursday night’s game for Disney+ streaming customers, along with ESPN+ subscribers. 

As Linda Schulz, vice president of production for ESPN’s National Hockey League coverage, told Front Office Sports: “The excitement that’s continued to grow around 4 Nations Face-Off is evident, beginning with the players themselves, and expanding well beyond the die-hard hockey fan and traditional hockey media. Interest from our own shows at ESPN has been particularly hot, with our NHL commentators doing 4 Nations hits for what feels like every studio show until the puck drops.”

Still to be determined is whether President Donald Trump will attend Thursday’s championship game. Trump attended both Super Bowl LIX and the Daytona 500. During an interview with Fox News on Monday, U.S. men’s national team GM Bill Guerin said he’d “love it” if Trump attended.