International tournament in 2025: Montreal has a good chance of hosting matches

This year, we have the All-Star Game in Toronto. Does that excite you? Does it excite the players, who won’t be enjoying the warm sunshine like their friends?

Honestly, it has the potential to be fun, up to a point. I like to see the dynamic between the guys, and the new skills competition format doesn’t excite me, but it does… intrigue me.

That’s something.

But it’s still just an All-Star Game. Serge Savard, who was on 98.5 yesterday, is right: it’s hard to find the right formula.

In Toronto, even if there are a lot of field hockey fans around, the fact remains that the fans aren’t in the arena because tickets aren’t for sale. So even if there is an All-Star Game, will the atmosphere be good?

Not necessarily, no.

Which is to say that, by necessity, we’re entitled to a format that will, to some extent, go through the butter (again). How excited are you by the following tweet on this Thursday morning?

The #MatchOfStars festivities begin today! #NHLAllStar festivities kick off today!#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/UYpIkK4z9L

– Montreal Canadiens (@CanadiensMTL) February 1, 2024

But hey. All this to say that next year, we should expect something different.

Instead of the All-Star Game, we’ll be treated to an interesting four-team tournament. The best players from Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden will compete against each other.

And according to Renaud Lavoie, who discussed the subject on BPM Sports this morning, it could be announced as early as this week that the tournament will be held in Montreal.

Nothing’s official yet, but it’s being discussed. The tournament should be announced by tomorrow, and Lavoie added the following:

I think we’re going to have a lot of fun in Montreal next year. – Renaud Lavoie

The journalist reports that Montreal and Boston are finalists for the tournament. Nothing has been signed yet, so it’s not official, but it’s obviously looking good.

Is a split between Montreal and Boston possible? Perhaps, yes.

If the NHL wants to promote the event in the best possible way, Montreal is the place to do it. The fans in the stands are more passionate than in Toronto, and the NHL might want to take advantage of this.

To be continued.

Breaking news

– Jake Guentzel, a name to watch.

– Arber Xhekaj is not expected to be traded. [BPM Sports]

– Interesting.