The NHL is on a two-week break for a new tournament.

The 4 Nations Face-Off is a round-robin tournament featuring the USA, Canada, Sweden, and Finland.

Seems like a good idea, right?

The NHL All-Star Game, like a lot of All-Star events, has become stale and the top players in the NHL haven’t really played against each other at the international level due to the lack of NHLers at the Winter Olympics.

At least the NHL is trying something completely different, and hopefully with the national teams involved, it gives us a handful of really fun games to watch.


Canada and Sweden play on Wednesday, then the USA opens against Finland on Thursday. Each team will play three games and the teams with the two highest point totals advance to the championship match.

Unsurprisingly, the USA and Canada are co-favorites at DraftKings to win the tournament at +150. Sweden is +450 and Finland is +1000.

There are all sorts of player futures to bet as well. For example, Auston Matthews at +800 is the favorite to score the most goals.

I would look at Canada’s Sam Reinhart at +1000. He’s playing ontheir top line with Mitch Marner and Connor McDavid and is on a loaded power play unit that has McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, Sidney Crosby, and Cale Makar.

Matthews is the favorite to be the USA’s top scorer, but I would look into Brady Tkachuk at +1000. He should be the top shooter on his line with J.T. Miller and Matt Boldy and he was working the net front on the second power play unit in practice.

A sneaky pick for Sweden is Lucas Raymond at +800 to be the team’s top scorer. He comes into the tournament in incredible form with the Detroit Red Wings and should get plenty of setups from Jesper Bratt and Joel Eriksson Ek.

Finland is the worst of the four teams on paper and its defense is one giant question mark. I’d look into any opponent team totals against the Finns, starting with the USA on Thursday.

As for the first two games of the tournament, there are plenty of PA betting promos and NJ sportsbook promos to use. DraftKings has a 33 percent profit boost for  a three-leg SGP for Sweden/Canada, FanDuel has a 25 percent boost on anytime goal scorers, and ESPN Bet has a 20 percent boost for any straight wager.

I’d look at Reinhart for the FD boost and then a shots on goal SGP for the DK boost. MacKinnon, William Nylander, and Filip Forsberg are three of the highest volume shooters in the NHL. I’d take them to have 3+ SOG and Reinhart 2+ SOG at +475 before the boost.

For Thursday, I’d look into the USA team total against Finland as well as shots on goal props for both Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, two high volume shooters with key roles on the USA power play units.