Before rushing forward to get to the next thing, which for everyone involved with the 4 Nations Face-Off meant navigating significant travel disruptions while en route to Boston in a blizzard, we must first pause for a moment of reflection.
These last few days have been, in a word, incredible. A spellbinding, spine-tingling display of what the sport can be when given the proper conditions to pop.
So much of the focus heading into this fresh-out-of-the-box event focused on what it didn’t have — namely, multiple significant NHL stars from countries not among the four invited — that it resulted in many onlookers ignoring everything working in its favor.
Let’s start with the players. They begged and pleaded and wailed for a…