You know how the NHL standings usually work, right? A win is two points, an overtime loss is one, and a regulation loss is a big fat zero. Well, for the NHL 4 Nations Face-Off, the league decided to blow that up. They went with a "3-2-1-0" system instead. Basically, if you win in regulation, you get three points. If you need overtime or a shootout, you only get two.
It changed the whole vibe.
Honestly, it made the round-robin games feel like Game 7 of the playoffs from the very first puck drop in Montreal. Teams couldn't just "play for the tie" in the third period to secure a point. If you let a game go to OT, you were essentially throwing a point in the trash.
How the NHL 4 Nations Standings Actually Shook Out
When the dust finally settled at TD Garden in Boston, the final round-robin standings looked a bit different than some people expected. Most fans figured Canada or the USA would steamroll everyone, but the European teams—Finland and Sweden—weren't just there to enjoy the scenery.
Here is the raw breakdown of how the teams sat before the championship game:
Team USA grabbed the top seed. They finished with 6 points in the round-robin. They opened up by absolutely dismantling Finland 6-1, which gave them those massive 3 points right out of the gate. Then they beat Canada 3-1 in what was probably the loudest game ever played at the Bell Centre. However, they tripped up in their final game, losing 2-1 to Sweden. Because they had two regulation wins, they stayed at the top.
Team Canada took the second spot, also finishing with 6 points but losing the tiebreaker to the Americans. They had a wild ride. They beat Sweden 4-3 in overtime (2 points), lost to the USA (0 points), and then took down Finland 5-3 in regulation (3 points). It was enough to get them into the final, but it wasn't the dominant "perfect" run Canadian fans usually demand.
Team Sweden and Team Finland were left on the outside looking in. Sweden actually played some of the most disciplined hockey of the tournament, finishing with 4 points. They lost to Canada in OT and then beat the USA in regulation. If they hadn't lost to Finland in a 4-3 overtime heartbreaker, we might have seen a "Tre Kronor" appearance in the final. Finland ended up at the bottom, despite that gritty win over Sweden, largely because of that opening blowout loss to the Americans.
The Point System That Kept Everyone Awake
Why did the NHL do this? Bill Daly, the NHL Deputy Commissioner, basically said they wanted to avoid tiebreakers at all costs. With only three games per team, a 2-point win system is a nightmare. You end up with everyone tied, and then you're looking at "most goals scored in the second period of games played on a Tuesday" or some other nonsense.
The 3-point regulation win reward creates a "high-stakes" environment.
If you’re tied with five minutes left, you don't sit back. You push. You take risks. It was a refreshing change from the "loser point" slog we sometimes see in the mid-winter NHL regular season.
Tiebreakers: The Math Behind the Madness
Since the tournament was so short, the NHL had a very specific protocol for what happens if the nhl 4 nations standings ended in a deadlock.
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- Head-to-Head: If two teams are tied, the winner of the game between them gets the higher seed. Simple.
- Regulation Wins: If there's a three-way tie, they look at who won the most games in 60 minutes.
- Regulation + OT Wins: This excludes shootouts.
- Goal Differential: Total goals for minus total goals against.
- Total Goals Scored: Who put the most pucks in the net?
In the 2025 tournament, it didn't get that deep into the weeds, but the threat of it definitely influenced how coaches like Jon Cooper (Canada) and Mike Sullivan (USA) managed their benches. You saw teams pulling their goalies in tied games late in the third period during international play before—not here, because of the 3-point incentive, but the math was always running in the background.
Who Actually Won?
While the standings told one story, the championship game told another. Team USA entered as the "home" team in Boston, looking like favorites after beating Canada earlier in the week. But the standings reset for the final.
It was a classic.
Canada took an early lead thanks to Nathan MacKinnon. Then the Americans surged back, with Ottawa teammates Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson making it 2-1. Sam Bennett tied it up for Canada. Then, the moment everyone will remember: Connor McDavid scoring the overtime winner to give Canada the 3-2 victory and the first-ever 4 Nations trophy.
Key Takeaways for the Future of International Hockey
The success of this tournament—and the clarity of the nhl 4 nations standings—is basically a green light for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. We haven't had "best-on-best" hockey like this since 2016, and fans were clearly starving for it.
The biggest lesson? The 3-2-1-0 point system works. It’s cleaner, it’s more aggressive, and it rewards the better team more fairly. Expect to hear fans screaming for the NHL to adopt this for the regular season, though the league usually resists that kind of change because the current "parity" (the fake closeness caused by the loser point) is good for TV ratings in April.
If you’re looking to track how these players are doing now that they've returned to their NHL clubs, keep an eye on the injury report. This tournament was intense. Guys like Quinn Hughes and Charlie McAvoy were swapping places on the roster due to the physical toll.
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To stay ahead of the next international cycle, you should look into the 2026 Olympic qualifying rosters. Most of the core players from the 4 Nations Face-Off are locks for their national teams, but the "bubble" players who performed well in Montreal and Boston—think guys like Sam Bennett or Brock Faber—just moved themselves way up the depth chart for Milano-Cortina.
Check the official NHL stats page for the individual "EDGE" data from the tournament, as it shows who was actually skating the fastest and shooting the hardest when the stakes were highest.
The next step is watching how these four nations adapt their rosters for the 2028 World Cup of Hockey, which will likely expand beyond just these four teams. For now, Canada holds the crown, but the standings proved the gap is smaller than it's ever been.