Early fights allowed Canada/USA game to be
enjoyed
Their antics allowed the 4 Nations Face-Off clash between Canada and the United States at the Bell Centre in Montreal to be enjoyed. They both got involved in fights after the respective first two faceoffs of the game.
From that point, the sellout pro-Canadian crowd of 21,105 spectators at the Bell Centre and I dare say those watching the contest on TV networks in both countries felt free to enjoy the game. The USA prevailed by a 3-1 score that included an empty-net goal.
Heading into that contest in that best-versus-best tournament that includes Finland and Sweden, most watching the game on the Canadian front were likely watching for the political story. That story was crowds at Canadian hosted NHL and NBA games were booing the national anthem of the United States due to the tariff and trade war policies enacted against Canada via executive orders by United States President Donald Trump.
The United States national anthem was booed before Thursday’s contest at the Bell Centre that saw the USA down Finland 6-1.
On Saturday in the clash between Canada and the United States, the crowd did boo the entire singing of the United States national anthem.
The crowd proceeded to sing O Canada in traditional bilingual form singing the Canadian national anthem in French before switching to English at the line, “God keep our land.”
At that point, the Tkachuk brothers ensured politics were forgotten for the next three hours. Off the opening faceoff, Matthew, who is a United States forward, engaged Canadian forward Brandon Hagel in a crowd-pleasing staged fight.
On the ensuing faceoff, younger brother Brady set to take the draw against Sam Bennett of Canada. After one second ticked off the clock, Brady and Bennett went at it in a second crowd-pleasing staged fight. When Brady was escorted off to the penalty box, he exchanged “fives” with brother Matthew before getting in the box.
As a bonus in the bout department, a six-second shift ensued that ended in a scrum around the Team Canada net. United States forward J.T. Miller and Canadian defenceman Colton Parayko came out of that scrum engaged in a big fight. After officials broke up that bout, the Bell Centre was rocking like the old Montreal Forum in NHL rivalry clashes that involved the Montreal Canadiens and the Quebec Nordiques in the 1980s.
At that point in time, it is safe to say no one was thinking about politics unless they were a “political animal” that only thinks about politics. Anyone watching that game was glued to looking at the action to see what happens next. All of a sudden, it felt like those who were watching the game were allowed to have the freedom to watch the game and even enjoy it.
During post-game interviews that were shown on television, the word “politics” wasn’t brought up when the Tkachuk brothers were interviewed. They said they were just trying to do something that would get everybody focused on the game and the idea of the staged fights was dreamed up earlier that day.
Of course, Brady is the captain of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and Matthew played for the NHL’s Calgary Flames before being traded to the Florida Panthers and winning a Stanley Cup with the Panthers last season. Their father, Keith Tkachuk, was a popular power forward with the first version of the Winnipeg Jets. The Tkachuk family knows how passionate Canadian fans are when it comes to the game of hockey.
During their hockey careers, Matthew and Brady have relished playing the role of villain. While they love their home fans, you get the feeling they extra energized when they go into an opposition rink and they know they are going to be booed and heckled.
It can be argued that the last player to relish being a villain even more than the Tkachuk brothers was all-time agitator and top tier scorer Theo Fleury.
It was only fitting that if there were going to be any staged fights to start Saturday’s battled between Canada and the United States, the Tkachuk brothers would be involved. All that fans that boo and heckle the Tkachuk brothers have to admit they would love it if they played on their favourite hockey team.
To see an example of a villain getting love, all one has to do was look at Boston Bruins captain Brad Marchand playing for Canada on Saturday. While Montreal hockey fans despise the Bruins, they cheered Marchand every time he got near the puck.
Also, big time credit has to be given to Hagel and Bennett for stepping up on the staged fight dance card along with Miller and Parayko for taking part in the third fight in the game’s first nine seconds.
In the current day, hockey is pretty tame and not a lot of old school happenings occur in the fight department at any level of the sport. Even for myself, I am 15 years removed from seeing antics similar to the Canada versus United States clash on Saturday in the fight department happening at any level - especially at the start of a hockey game.
Following those three bouts, Canada and the United States played a typical intense and tight checking style of NHL post-season game.
Canada scored first at the 5:31 mark of the opening frame when defenceman Drew Doughty sprung all-world forward Connor McDavid into the United States zone on a stretch pass. McDavid lifted a backhand shot over the glove of United States netminder Connor Hellebuyck for a 1-0 lead.
At the 10:15 mark of the first, United States forward Jake Guentzel put a shot between the legs of Canadian netminder Jordan Binnington to even the score at 1-1.
The United States took a 2-1 lead at the 13:33 mark of the second when Canadian legend Sidney Crosby uncharacteristically gave the puck away with an ill-advised cross ice pass just inside the blue-line of the United States zone. The USA broke up ice the other way on a two-on-one break that ended with forward Dylan Larkin firing home the winning goal blocker side on Binnington.
Guentzel rounded out the game’s scoring with an empty-net tally with 1:19 remaining in the third to complete a two-goal night.
Binnington turned away 20-of-22 shots for Canada. Hellebuyck stopped 25 shots for the United States.
Matthew didn’t play the final 12:36 of the contest due to an apparent injury and stayed on the United States bench. He told reporters after the game that he would be fine.
The win allows the United States to improve to 2-0 and earn a spot in the tournament final set for Thursday at the TD Garden in Boston. Canada has an overtime win and regulation loss and sits tied with two points in the tournament standings with Finland, who has an extra time win and a regulation loss, and Sweden, who has two extra time losses.
Canada plays Finland on Monday, while the United States faces Sweden. Both those contests will be at the TD Garden.
Overall, the specter of politics will still hang over this tournament.
Still, it was fantastic that the Tkachuk brothers made sure Saturday night was alright, even if it was just for a few hours.
If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.
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