Good Monday Morning, Uni Watchers, and a Happy Presidents Day to all.
Back in late January, the 4 Nations Face Off jerseys were unveiled, and at the time, we hadn’t seen the helmets, breezers or socks each of the four nations involved (Canada, Finland, Sweden, USA) would be sporting for this round-robin tournament. The games officially began last Wednesday, with Canada taking on Sweden, and on Thursday, the USA played Finland. On Saturday, Sweden played Finland, and in the big game on Saturday night, Canada and the US squared off. All of these games took place at the Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens.
The games will now move to the home of the Bruins, the TD Garden, for the next set of games: today we have Canada vs. Finland (1:00 pm ET), with the USA vs. Sweden (8:00 pm) closing out the round robin. With two wins in two games, the United States is guaranteed a spot in the final, which will be played Thursday night at 8:00 pm. You can get caught up with all the previous action here.
I watched almost all of the Wednesday and Thursday night games, as well as Saturday Night’s feature, and I have to say, for the most part, I’ve been very impressed with the uniforms sported by all four nations. Each nation only has one uniform for the tournament, and with only Finland wearing white sweaters, every other game has been color vs. color.
Let’s take a look at each nation’s uniform individually, and then how they looked when matched up.
Canada
The Canadians looked excellent in their red sweaters, with black helmets and pants — a classic look. Instead of using white for an accent, Canada opted to go with an off-white color for its jersey stripes and socks, with off-white numbers outlined in black. They also featured a solid red maple leaf on the right side of the pants.
I’m not generally a fan of uniforms that use off-white as a base color (especially when attempting to give a uniform an “old time” appearance), but as an accent, I think it looks fantastic for Canada. The uniforms also featured off-white NOB, and jersey numbers were very large and easy to read.
More photos here:
Finland
The Finns were decked out in white buckets, white sweaters, navy breezers and white, striped socks. Their navy blue color blocks were accented with royal blue. White TV numbers in a rounded font sat atop the navy blue portion of the sleeve, and rear numbers were in navy with a royal blue outline. NOB was solid navy.
This is another very good looking uniform. I’ve often said royal and navy are very hard to pair together, but the Finns make it work.
More photos here:
Sweden
The Swedes may have the best-looking uniform of all. Their gold sweaters featuring the blue tre kronor logo (also seen in reverse on the right pant leg), along with their blue helmets and breezers are just gorgeous. Gold socks with two blue stripes, matching those of the sweater sleeves, complete the ensemble. But the best feature of the uniforms is the Swedish flag created by using negative space near the elbows.
Gold and navy (and no other colors or shades) look fantastic when paired together, and the Swedish team does it remarkably well. Blue NOB and bespoke number fonts round out the set.
More photos here:
United States
The USA, of course, is sporting red, white, and blue, with white helmets, and blue jerseys, pants and socks. It’s quite a dark shade of navy at that.
I was a little bit concerned going in that the beveled gradient for the “USA” logo and/or the numbers wouldn’t look good in action, but it was fine and didn’t affect legibility at all. NOB were solid white. My only real criticism, and it’s minor, is the white helmet over an all-blue uniform, and the use of a lower-case “n”. I don’t like the w/b/b/b look in football, and it’s not much better on ice.
More photos here:
Canada vs. Sweden
Finland vs. USA
Finland vs. Sweden
Canada vs. USA
But overall I thought all of the uniforms are very good to excellent, and all four matchups between the teams so far have been great.
If you’re curious as to why the four nations were chosen to play in the tournament, it was done by ranking, but with a slight twist: all participating teams were ranked in the top six by ice hockey’s worldwide governing body, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF): Canada (1), Finland (2), United States (4) and Sweden (6). Germany, while ranked fifth, didn’t have enough NHL players to create a roster, while Russia — ranked third — was excluded from play. (Russia was specifically excluded due to the ban imposed on it by the IIHF for its ongoing war in Ukraine.
You may have noticed the NHL held no All-Star Game this season — for 2025, the 4 Nations Face-Off replaced the ASG, but just for one year. The NHL will hold an All-Star Game in 2026 to send off NHL players to the Olympics in Milan, and the plan is to alternate the World Cup of Hockey and the Olympics every two years afterward, with the NHL pausing during each so NHL players can represent their home nations in those events. The return of NHL players to the Olympics is most welcome, and hasn’t happened since 2014.
NHL players have participated in the Olympics five times: Nagano (1998), Salt Lake City (2002), Turin (2006), Vancouver (2010) and Sochi (2014). According to this from the NHL:
NHL players didn’t participate in PyeongChang in 2018, because the NHL did not reach an agreement with the NHLPA, the IIHF and the International Olympic Committee.
Then came COVID-19.
The pandemic disrupted the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. The NHL and NHLPA had to work together to get through it. In the process, they agreed to go to the Olympics in Beijing in 2022 and Milan in 2026 if they also could reach agreements with the IOC and the IIHF.
In the end, the NHL had to pull out of the Olympics in 2022 because of the pandemic. But the seed was planted for 2026 and beyond.
While I watch a decent amount of NHL hockey, I absolutely love the international competitions. And while the 4 Nations Face-Off only features four teams, it’s still a nice in-season treat. It’s not known if the 4NFO (or something resembling it) will occur in odd years going forward, but if the 2025 tournament is viewed as a success, it’s very possible it will return in some form for 2027. But for now, we can enjoy today and tonight’s games and Thursday’s final.
Your thoughts?
I like this tournament setup much better than any NBA, NHL ASG or the NFL Pro Bowl. Real play, real effort and the hell with possible injuries that could influence playoffs or future contracts. Reckless abandon. But to be totally honest: the original and best ASG is still in MLB. I just love it. The perfect mix of easing things down even more than in a regular season game and still showing skills.
These 4 hockey uniforms are wonderful. two small details: why not repeat the brilliant flag effect in the Swedish socks? And the USA needs navy buckets.
Was about to post something similar. I prefer the 4 Nations event to the All Star game, which is usually a light skate-around with a 18-16 final score (that may be exaggerating). Probably too much to have a 4-Nations event every year though. Maybe do every 2 or 4, somewhat like the Olympics?
“Probably too much to have a 4-Nations event every year though.”
They’re not. Starting in 2026 (and every four years thereafter) the NHL will be taking a break to let its players join their national teams for the Olympics. Then, in 2028, the plan is to alternate the World Cup of Hockey and the Olympics every two years. So at best they’d have a 4NFO every odd year. They haven’t announced one for 2027 (yet) — maybe they’re waiting to see the final ratings before committing to another 4NFO.
GTGFTU:
1998 NBA All Star game at MSG.
Pretty sure this was the famous Kobe vs Michael changing of the guard if you will.
Those Finland uniforms are super sharp, love the way they look on the ice on TV…
And the USA uniforms are good, not great… and I’m not saying I don’t like the darker blue but every now and then it would be nice if the uniform color matched the Old Glory blue on the American Flag.
I don’t like the navy blue for Sweden. I wish they’d go back to this…link
I do like the flag on the sleeves, however, for the sake of redundancy, that’s not the right shade of blue…link
I do agree after looking at it again: needs to be royal blue. However, the Swedish football team has also changed its (adidas) striping to navy as well recently, even though the flag is royal blue and gold.
What was the reason given for the change? Better visibility? Royal on yellow isn’t difficult to see at all.
They did the same thing with the USA uniforms…
the color is way too dark to match the USA flag but maybe the designers felt the lighter blues were outdated. I like almost all the new Fanatics designs, very good but would like to see true flag colors on uniforms every now and then
Everything about this has been amazing. From the uniforms, the tournament set-up and the games itself. It is like watching a mini-Olympics. I hope they continue this in the odd years, and based on the TV ratings I can’t see why they wouldn’t. Also, Kudos to Fanatics. As much as I was skeptical of them the NHL uniforms have been great and this was an absolute grade A in style and presentation without overdoing storytelling.
GTGFTS – July 22, 1975. Koosman stole second and went to third on a bad throw.
Would have preferred red breezers for USA, but much better than the NBA all star game.
Completely understand the Russian ban, still it’s interesting to speculate how they might have fared in the tournament (and what their uniforms would have looked like).
Since retiring the red breezers, I think the US kind of own the white buckets over dark blue look. Not necessarily optimal, but easy to distinguish from their opponents.
I’ve always liked how certain countries’ sports livery doesn’t match their flag (Italy, So. Africa, Australia, New Zealand) and wonder what the USA’s choice would be if we took that tack.
Love the Swedish uniforms as-is.
Scoreboard: what caught my eye was seeing Bench’s 5 in LF, one of the 55 times he did during his career.
The uniforms are good. Having this event is 100% better than the NHL All-Star game. With more of this tournament and NHL players in Olympics we will have less All-Star games which is good.
Some improvements I recommend:
-Yes, Sweden wearing navy blue instead of royal looks weird. It is a nice uniform, but it doesn’t look right for Sweden unless navy.
-The USA World Junior team now has a really excellent royal blue uniform (royal blue helmets and pants) which is hands-down better than this USA uniform. Royal blue could have worked here.
If they wear this navy uniform, go with navy helmet.
-Canada. I have long been a proponent for giving up the black trim for some time now. Switch it up and feed off of traditional Team Canada looks prior to the long-term use of black as a trim colour. This tournament reminds me of the old Canada Cup. Couldn’t help but think to myself how awesome it would look with Canada out there in something resembling the fabulous 1987 and 1991 uniforms.
My wife tolerates, sometimes even humors, my uni watching interest, but rarely herself seems to notice or care about the uniforms on games I watch. So I take it as significant when she does. In USA-Canada, she mentioned how much nicer Canada’s socks looked than USA’s, and how good Canada looked in general. And in Finland-Canada, she mentioned how much she liked seeing Finland’s name written in Finnish. Props to the NHL for making uniform details so good my wife would notice them!
For me, USA-Canada was the real proof in the pudding game. The USA uniform really relies on the brightness of the white accents to make the navy and red work together and pop, and it works nicely, but Canada wouldn’t look nearly as good on the bright white ice next to the bright white flashes of USA if their white elements were also bright white. Canada’s off white gives them such a distinctive look, and the proportions of the stripes work so well on the jersey front, the sleeves, and the socks. Whereas USA’s stripes work fine on the jersey hem, adequately on the sleeves, and poorly on the socks. I expected to not like USA’s sweater in actions, but it wound up being my second-favorite of the event. Such a strong design for a nation whose hockey uniforms rarely exceed mediocre.
I noticed right away that the USA’s white buckets look a little off (to me) with full blue underneath. That said, I think a blue lid would be “too” blue, if that makes sense. Maybe red would look better? (you could do red breezers too) I also am not a fan of the “upper” lower case latter in on the NOBs mixed with caps. Strange to me, but we’ve seen it with other sports.
I’m also not a fan of the white helmets. We switched to blue helmets at World Juniors a few years ago and it looks so much better. Of the 4 jerseys, USA is the most meh. Red pants is an interesting idea and would be so retro 1980.
I’m a little surprised they didn’t give each team a second helmet to ensure a good contrast for each matchup.
USA – white/navy
Canada – black/red
Finland – white/blue(either royal or navy)
Sweden – navy/yellow
And the US should have gone with red pants, especially since the blues appear to not quite match the sweaters.
As a group, these uniforms are pretty good. I appreciate that visually they don’t all conform to an obvious template with colors, blocking, stripes, etc. They wanted to make these look like genuine international jerseys, and they succeeded. I will concede that the collars look pretty bad.
USA- The white helmets over navy everything is controversial. I like it for USA international teams because it’s relatively distinctive and consistent. Helmet rules notwithstanding, my ideal two-uniform set for them would be this and either a variation of this in white-navy-white, or the MoI throwback. This is a rare case when I prefer lettering rather than a center crest. I’ve always felt that the USAHockey logos with the flag-S script were cheesy and over-designed. It should just say “USA” in lettering. The typeface and beveling risk being too design-y, but it’s okay here given the overall simplicity of the uniform. On a longer-term basis, I think I’d lean towards ditching the bevel or toning it down a little.
Canada looks fine. The simple leaf on the pant is a great detail. The off-white or antique cream shade seems a little overused lately, but we’re talking about Canada and ice hockey, so they have every right to use it. These are a little bit heavy on black; they’re basically Chicago Blackhawks uniforms with a different crest. Then again, the Chicago Blackhawks have some of the best uniforms in hockey. Compared to blue or navy as an auxiliary color, black also makes Canada more distinctive visually when you consider a wider range of international teams from countries with variations of the red-white-blue color scheme. I think I like their simpler, red-and-white-only uniforms best, but these are fine.
Sweden’s basic uniform concept is so good that it’s nearly tinker-proof and it almost doesn’t matter what tweaks they make with it. Iconic crest, good stripe theory and color blocking. That said, I do prefer the stark royal-and-yellow that better resembles their flag. Navy and yellow is fine, but there’s no need to shy away from the brighter colors. The flag-in-stripe does get a little too cute for me. I would prefer plain, wider-spaced stripes and a basic flag shoulder patch (…). Still, the basic concept is so strong that it overcomes these details.
The Finland uniforms look okay, but they’re probably my least favorite of the group. I do like when they use white with two shades of blue, but I’d like for the lighter blue to be more prominent on the sweater. It’s a shame that the lion crest is so small. That crest is amazing, and it should be either bigger or higher up above the heart. “Suomi” on the front is a mainstay, but it’s hard to get a good balance between that and the symbolic crest. The contrasting upper sleeves were something that was popping up everywhere a few years ago. I did not like it at the time, and now it seems like an expired trend, but at least this is one of the better uses of it.
I’m a stickler for shades of color. The USA and Sweden blues should match the blue on their flags. They do not. Those blues are lighter, especially Sweden. USA blue is somewhere between Navy and Royal in my opinion. I’d prefer Canada go Red and Snow White like their flag but that is difficult to do without looking like the Detroit RedWings. Finland matches its flag color with the light blue–it is lighter than Royal in my opinion. Combined with Navy Blue, it looks good, and I assume “Suomi” is “Finland” in Finnish? Toronto Blue Jays and Tennessee Titans introduced the dark blue/light blue look in other sports and the Winnipeg Jets already use this color scheme in the NHL.