NHL Gamers Affiliation government director Marty Walsh returned to Boston on Saturday afternoon to attend the Boston Bruins’ Authentic Six matchup with the New York Rangers at TD Backyard.
Nonetheless, the previous Boston mayor was not on the town to observe a hockey sport. Walsh was readily available to advertise the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off, which begins Feb. 12 in Montreal.
“The primary subject is the 4 Nations arising, best-on-best competitors in worldwide hockey,” Walsh instructed reporters earlier than puck drop, in response to audio offered by NESN’s Keagan Stiefel. “We haven’t had it shortly within the league, and having it come again is nice, We have now 90 NHL gamers taking part in.
“A number of followers, notably right here in Boston and across the nation, world wide, haven’t seen one of these event in a very long time. … I’m excited personally, as the previous mayor of Boston, that we’re internet hosting the championship sport right here on the Boston Backyard.”
Regardless of ticket gross sales being sluggish to begin, Walsh feels the event’s momentum will construct over the following few weeks.
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“Persons are speaking about it,” Walsh mentioned. “I believe that now with soccer being past the AFC and NFC Championship video games heading into the Tremendous Bowl, individuals are beginning to deal with this event. After the Tremendous Bowl, it’s going to be two weeks of worldwide hockey. I believe extra individuals are going to begin listening to it.”
The Bruins may have 4 teammates changed into foes, with captain Brad Marchand representing Canada, Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman suiting up for Crew USA and Elias Lindholm getting the decision to affix Crew Sweden.
Sadly, one of many Bruins’ greatest stars will solely have the ability to cheer on his teammates as an alternative of taking part in towards them. Finland is the fourth nation within the event, leaving out Czechia and David Pastrnak.
“What occurred there, and Pasta was considered one of (the gamers jockeying for extra groups), we talked to him, after I took over in 2023, one of many issues was we wished to get the World Cup of Hockey again in place, and we wished to do the Olympics. So we began speaking to the league in regards to the Olympics and got here to an settlement,” Walsh defined. “… We realized we didn’t have sufficient time. We talked about six groups, eight groups and we went with the 4 as a result of we simply didn’t have the time to place a event that massive collectively.
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“We talked about 16, 18, 14 video games, and we went with 4 as a result of there was simply no time to place a event that massive collectively.”
The 4 Nations Face-Off will exchange the NHL All-Star Recreation this season and might be held from Feb. 12 by means of Feb. 20 at Bell Centre and TD Backyard.
