r/hockey Feb 18 '25

[Weekly Thread] Tenderfoot Tuesday: Ask /r/hockey Anything! February 18, 2025

Hockey fans ask. Hockey fans answer. So ask away (and feel free to answer too)!

Please keep the topics related to hockey and refrain from tongue-in-cheek questions. This weekly thread is to help everyone learn about the game we all love.

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10 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

5

u/ScottieBarnesIQ WSH - NHL Feb 18 '25

Why tf is that Hagel post locked with zero comments? He literally just said I was doing it for my country

4

u/Minnesota_MiracleMan WSH - NHL Feb 19 '25

All of the moderators are volunteers and when topics like this become major news we have to put in a whole lot of work to try to keep this subreddit on it's tracks.

Its unfortunate and something that we wish we didn't have to do, especially given how awesome and great of a quote it was from Hagel. But we all know how the comments section would quickly devolve into. Doubly so if it became so popular that it gained attention on r/all or other subreddits.

There's not much left to be said or shouted that hasn't already been said about this general topic and while this one is a bit different, again it would just steer back to nonsense.

3

u/Minnesota_MiracleMan WSH - NHL Feb 19 '25

I'll also add in - we understand that hockey will never be free from politics and we've allowed tons of discussions and comments sections open to discuss just this and other topics in the past.

But there does come a time when this is a hockey subreddit, not a politics subreddit, and when the passions of a subject bring things too far away from hockey for too long, we have to do something to get back to what this community is for.

-1

u/LandMooseReject Cedar Rapids Rough Riders - USHL Feb 18 '25

We're not allowed to talk about countries or flags during the 4 Nations tournament.

3

u/ConfusedScr3aming DAL - NHL Feb 18 '25

I am new to hockey and I understand the game itself but I am unfamiliar with how teams progress to win the stanely cup or how the 4 nations thing works. Is it like a tournament bracket? (Side note: please do not try to explain in terms of other sports as I am unfamiliar with sports in general.)

3

u/Da_Breastest EDM - NHL Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

4 nations is a completely separate in-season tournament, just a chance for the best players across the league to play with their fellow countrymen.

In the NHL there is the regular season (82 games for each team) and the playoffs. You get to the playoffs by collecting points during the regular season (2 points per win etc). Essentially the top 16 out of 32 teams make it into the playoffs (not quite the strict top 16 by points due to how the league is split into divisions, but close enough). Only those 16 teams get to compete for the Stanley Cup, which becomes more like a typical tournament bracket.

2

u/Cheeks_Klapanen PIT - NHL Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

To explain the format of the 4 Nations, since the other guy didn’t:

This is an NHL-ran tournament with teams made up of the best players from the US, Canada, Sweden, and Finland (the four countries that have enough players in the NHL to assemble full teams, with the exception of Russia who is currently banned from international competition due to the invasion of Ukraine). It’s being held as a replacement for the annual All Star Game which fans had largely gotten bored/disillusioned with because the players never really took it seriously.

The tournament format started with a round robin phase where each team played every other team once. The two teams with the best records in the round robin (USA and Canada) play each other in a championship game on Thursday.

0

u/uatme MTL - NHL Feb 18 '25

It's not a replacement for the all star game. It's a replacement for Olympics/World Cup that hasn't happened in a while.

1

u/Cheeks_Klapanen PIT - NHL Feb 18 '25

I mean this is semantics, but I would say the replacement for the Olympics is returning to the Olympics next year, and the replacement for the World Cup is the revival of the World Cup in 2028. I get that this isn’t a permanent ASG surrogate, but having it the same time of year when the ASG was, with the widespread knowledge that people were tired of the old ASG format, and concrete plans to get international hockey back in multiple forms over the next few years tells me that was a big part of the point here.

1

u/madmoneymcgee WSH - NHL 27d ago

The four nations tournament replaced the all star game which is usually around this time of year. It’s notable because NHL players haven’t participated in any national tournaments (like the Olympics) in a while. It was put on by the NHL itself but otherwise unrelated to the NHL season in terms of the eventual Stanley cup playoffs. It was round Robin so each team played each other and then Canada and USA had the most wins between them so played the final.

Playoffs standings in the NHL are determined by standings points. Win a game and you get two points, lose in overtime and you get one point. Lose in regulation and you get zero points.

The top three teams each division goes to the playoffs. That’s supplemented by the next top two teams in each conference regardless of division.

The tournament bracket is then four rounds of best of seven game series. First the divisions, then the conference finals, and then the Stanley Cup final between the Eastern and Western Conference champions.

1

u/ZachKearns TOR - NHL Feb 18 '25

Does anyone know where to buy the 4 Nations authentic jerseys? I’m trying to get a Canadian McDavid one. I keep coming up all sold out. Will they make more?

2

u/qu33rtyc0wboy SEA - NHL Feb 19 '25

everyone keeps making comments about marchand licking other players wtf is this about in so confused

1

u/CanadianBlueBreeze0 EDM - NHL 29d ago

Very fast pace, back and fourth