After losing violent battle to USA, will Canada still win the war?

Credit: Feb 15, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CAN; [Imagn Images direct customers only] Team United States forward Matthew Tkachuk (19) and Team Canada forward brandon Hagel (38) fight in the first period during a 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey game at the Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

MONTREAL – “It’s not many times you get to suit up and fight for your country.”

Sam Bennett said it. As if there was any doubt this hockey game was being treated like all-out warfare.

What year was it? Did Bell Centre transform back into the Montreal Forum? It was Canada vs. USA, delivering old-time hockey that would’ve felt at home in the 1970s, clashing in men’s best-on-best for the first time in nine years. Wow, did the prize fight not disappoint.

Both teams chose immediate and furious violence off the opening faceoff Saturday night in the fourth round-robin contest of the 4 Nations Face-Off: Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Hagel, two seconds in; Brady Tkachuk and Sam Bennett, three seconds in, looking like they might actually murder each other; then a Goliath-vs.-bigger-Goliath scrap between J.T. Miller and Colton Parayko at the nine-second mark. The shocking, jaw-smashing opening act took any notion of the tournament being a silly exhibition and elbow-dropped it from the top rope. While the prevailing narrative around the matchup suggested the hatred was on the exterior, coming from the fans and the politics, it spilled onto the ice Saturday night in one of the most unforgettable games in recent memory.

But why did it happen? Were the players buying into the hype around the booing of the U.S. anthems? Was it UFC legend Georges St-Pierre introducing Canada at the start of the game that sparked a fighting spirit?

No. It was the Tkachuk brothers, naturally. They admitted after the game they’d hatched a plan in advance, with Miller via group chat, to drop the gloves with the Canadians.

“The message we wanted to send is, ‘It’s our time,’ ” Matthew Tkachuk said. “We’re in a hostile environment, and we wanted to show that we’re not backing down. They’ve had so much success over so many years over there. They’re some of the best players in the world. We felt in this environment it was a good time to do it. It was a lot of fun. You’ve got to give credit to those guys, as well. They did the exact same thing that we did. I thought it was great energy from both sides, and the building was shaking after the third one. I’m excited to watch them.”

“I’m not backing down,” Hagel said of his bout with Tkachuk. “I think a little bit of the talk is these guys are going to take over the Canadian way. I’m not going to let it happen.”

“I had a feeling after Matthew went and then Brady came over to me and, yeah, I feel like it was just waiting to happen,” Bennett said. “I’m not sure if it was part the anthem or just the intensity of the moment, but they seemed to be the aggressors in terms of wanting that to happen.”

The Americans instigated, and the Canadians were proud of their response, perhaps none more than coach Jon Cooper, who felt it showed how much his team cared. But after the massive adrenaline dump of those opening seconds, there was a hockey game to play, and USA played a better one in the end, coming out a 3-1 winner.

Canada drew first blood on a classic Connor McDavid mad dash, finished with a backhand roof job past goaltender Connor Hellebuyck halfway through the first period, but the U.S. answered when Jake Guentzel’s wrister squirted through Jordan Binnington’s pads for a softy not even five minutes later. Dylan Larkin’s game-winner came midway through the second period when he finished off an odd-man rush following an uncharacteristic neutral-zone turnover by Sidney Crosby.

The Canadians couldn’t find the space to mount their comeback in a smothering defensive struggle of a game. The shots were just 26-23. Canada had a 29-24 edge in scoring chances and 15-10 advantage in high-danger chances, but the cool, efficient Hellebuyck held his ground, outplaying Binnington just enough. The Canadians were quietly great defensively, keeping the Tkachuk brothers, Auston Matthews and Jack Hughes off the score sheet. But the Americans looked visibly bigger and faster. They made good on coach Mike Sullivan’s compliment earlier this week that they have a “grind game” to match their offensive game. They proved why they were the slight favorite entering the tournament. And the one breakdown on the Larkin goal was the difference in a game checked very tightly on either side.

“Both teams have a whole bunch of brilliant skilled players,” Cooper said. “You can watch an NHL game and see shots are 45-35, there’s chances all over the place and run-and-gun can happen. But when you have this quality of players and they all check, that’s why shots are 20-20. That’s why there’s no space. It goes back to caring.”

“I think that the hockey is tight checking, it doesn’t allow for a ton of [chances], but I think definitely when we get opportunities, we’ve got make sure we execute,” Crosby said. “There’s not a lot of time and space and there’s not a lot of breakdowns.”

Team USA clinched a berth in the 4 Nations Face-Off’s Final with the regulation victory Saturday. It was a costly one, however, as Matthew Tkachuk sustained a lower-body injury and exited the game in the third period. Meanwhile, Canada’s best-on-best winning streak in men’s hockey ends at 17. It’s their first defeat since 2010, when the U.S. topped them in the round-robin of the Vancouver Olympics. The Canadians got their revenge in the gold-medal game, of course. Crosby and Drew Doughty are the holdovers from that team. If they want to repeat the feat of 2010, they’ll have to handle Finland in Monday’s matinee, when the tournament shifts to Boston. Canada can control its destiny with a win in regulation.

It would be a massive upset for Canada to lose that game, though Sweden learned Saturday afternoon that Finland was a game opponent even with such a depleted defense corps. Assuming Canada gets past the Finns, can it still get the better of the Americans?

It won’t be easy. Saturday showed that, while Canada eagerly answered the bell, it can’t intimidate or outmuscle the U.S. The very fact the fights became the narrative shows the Tkachuks’ plan worked. It fired up the Canadians’ adrenal glands, sure, but that wasn’t the path to a win.

Going forward, the Canadians will have to rely on their superior top-end star power – note that Cooper experimented with Crosby and McDavid together in the third period alongside Brayden Point – and its clutch experience. The Canadians have 14 Stanley Cup winners, while the Americans have three. Canada will need to solve Hellebuyck more than once – and to do that, it will need to create much more traffic in his crease, which will be a challenge for a forward group lacking size.

“We’ve got to do a little bit better job on the forecheck and then just getting more pucks to the net,” Bennett said. “It’s such a basic concept, but that’s going to help us create more chaos and then get some more opportunities.”

Canada will also have to hope top defenseman Cale Makar is healthy enough to play on Monday after missing Saturday’s tilt with an illness. Emergency replacement Thomas Harley held his own just fine, but Makar is one of one, and his elite skill was noticeably absent on Saturday.

The Canadians get a day and a half to recover and maybe use their own group chat to hatch a comeback plan. Whether it was the Summit Series in 1972, Salt Lake City in 2002 or Vancouver in 2010, they haven’t always played perfect hockey tournaments, but they’ve persevered in the do-or-die games. Now we see if they can mine some more of that classic Canadian courage.

“This is a confident group with a lot of experience,” Bennett said. “So there’s no worries in here.”

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After losing violent battle to USA, will Canada still win the war?

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