The NHL’s nation-based tournament is not the Olympics, and it isn’t really an all-star game either. Instead of the typical all-star format used by nearly every other professional sports league, the NHL opted to create the 4 Nations Face-Off, featuring teams of players from Canada, the United States, Finland and Sweden.

It was the second half of July 2001 when the leaders of the eight most developed countries in the world had to face the sweltering Italian heat on their way to Genoa. The 27th G8 summit was to tackle international...