When Team USA and Canada meet for a rematch in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship, don’t expect the intensity to dip. Canadian forward Brandon Hagel said the animosity at the start of the game wasn’t just for showmanship.
When the Americans and Canadians met on Saturday night, a 3-1 win for the U.S., there were three fights in the first nine seconds of the game. Hagel dropped the gloves with Team USA’s Matthew Tkachuk as soon as the puck hit the center-ice face-off dot, and that kicked off a chain reaction.
All of that ruckus was preceded by Canadian fans booing the U.S. national anthem during the pregame festivities. That led to a charged atmosphere in the Bell Centre, as well as between the players. Hagel doesn’t expect anything different on Saturday night because his fight came from a sense of national pride.
“I think it’s gonna be the same way,” Hagel said. “… Listen, what happened the other night, I did it for the flag and not for the cameras.”
After Hagel and Tkachuk went at one another, Brady Tkachuk and Sam Bennett fought upon the ensuing face-off. Six more seconds went by without a fight until Team USA’s JT Miller and Canada’s Colton Parayko exchanged punches in front of the Canadian net.
The booing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” in Montreal did turn up the heat on an already contentious rivalry. Following Team USA’s 6-1 win over Finland on Thursday, Matthew Tkachuk shared his brief thoughts about the booing.
“I didn’t like it, and that’s all I got,” Tkachuk said.
Whether the American fans at TD Garden in Boston repay the favor to the Canadian national anthem remains to be seen, but the intensity level on the ice won’t be in question.
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