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Boston's Morning Newsletter
4 Nations Face-Off, a 'fantasy land' for hockey fans, comes to Boston
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
The now-frozen mix of snow and rain on the ground may be reason enough to stay indoors this Presidents Day. But if you’ve got to venture out, just know the T will be running on a Saturday schedule for Presidents Day.
Now, to the news:
The NHL’s 4 Nation’s Face-Off moves to Boston Monday after four games in Montreal last week. The in-season tournament consists of NHL players from the U.S., Canada, Finland and Sweden, all playing against each other. As WBUR’s Fausto Menard reports, the unique tournament is replacing the NHL’s All-Star game this year.
- Why? Not unlike the NBA, the NHL has increasingly struggled to attract interest in its All-Star Game. “The All-Star game is pretty much a monstrosity,” Fluto Shinzawa, senior reporter at The Athletic, told Fausto. “The players don’t like it. Fans don’t really like it. What the players do really enjoy — and what fans enjoy also — is best-on-best hockey.”
- Why it matters: The NHL hadn’t allowed its players to compete in the Olympics since 2014, so this is the first time since 2016 that hockey’s best players have gotten to compete against each other while representing their countries. Consider it an appetizer to next year’s Winter Olympics, which will once again include NHL players.
- Are any Bruins players competing? Yes! Team captain Brad Marchand is playing for Canada, while Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman are on Team USA. Elias Lindholm is also representing Sweden. Aside from Boston big shots, fans will also see some of hockey’s biggest stars, like Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid. "The skill is unparalleled,” Shinzawa said. “This is fantasy land for hockey enthusiasts.”
- The schedule: TD Garden hosts the final round-robin games today. Canada plays against Finland at 1 p.m., and then the U.S. takes on Sweden at 8 p.m. That will determine who plays in the championship Thursday night. “I would say there’s a pretty high likelihood that it will be Canada vs. U.S.,” Shinzawa said. “I think the league would be very, very pleased with that kind of final.”
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Celebrating our presidents: Got the day off? The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library is hosting its annual Presidents Day festival today. There will be a cappella performances, historical reenactments, craft stations and “Presidential Jeopardy.”
- Another activity? Writing letters to the president. Visitors will get a chance to look at constituent letters written to JFK during his presidency, and in turn, write their own to President Trump. “One of our highest hopes for a day like this is that everyone gets to walk away feeling a little bit more empowered, [with] an understanding of the ways that everyday people can participate in the democracy,” María Quintero, outreach director for the library, told WBUR’s John Bender.
- Speaking of JFK… When should we expect to see the Trump-ordered Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. document drops? It may be a while. Trump signed an executive order in late January calling for the release of the documents surrounding the 1960s assassinations of JFK, Robert Kennedy and MLK. But the order’s deadline was to have a plan for the release within 15 days. The actual process could take a lot longer, especially if there’s a detailed page-by-page review. The Intelligencer has a good breakdown of the timeline here.
On the list: Twenty-two more plants and animals are now considered endangered in Massachusetts, according to state wildlife officials. That brings the total list to 453 species. MassWildlife zoologist Michael Nelson told WBUR’s Cici Yu habitat loss, invasive plants and climate change are playing a role in the decline of certain species, like the Acadian Hairstreak butterfly.
- Zoom in: The Acadian Hairstreak could be found in more than 40 Massachusetts towns before 2020, but recently, officials say the butterfly was only seen in two areas. “We see it becoming rarer and rarer here at the southern edge of its range,” Nelson said.
Brookline city officials are still investigating what caused an apartment building on Vernon Street to collapse Sunday. The building, which was under construction, had its second and third floors come crashing down suddenly around 9:30 a.m. Though no one was inside, the incident temporarily displaced around a dozen people and damaged multiple cars.
P.S.— After hitting the JFK Library, do you need more ways to keep the kids busy during February break this week? Our Weekender newsletter outlined five things to do with the family around Greater Boston to keep them laughing and learning.
