BOSTON (AP) — The U.S. and Canadian hockey teams tried to skate back the geopolitical tension that has infiltrated the 4 Nations Face-Off as they looked ahead to the championship game Thursday night for what has turned into one of the best international hockey tournaments in decades.
Setting aside the animosity that has been building over tariff talks, anthems and annexation, the players and coaches said they wanted to leave their fans with an appreciation for the game like the one they picked up from iconic events like the United States’ “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
“That event in USA Hockey inspired a generation of players: my generation,” said U.S. coach Mike Sullivan, who was 11 when the Americans won the gold medal in Lake Placid.
“I think this group that we have in our dressing room have an opportunity to do that and inspire the next generation. And I think they recognize that,” said Sullivan, who followed several of the U.S. Olympians to Boston University before an 11-year NHL playing career and two decades more as a coach. “Without a doubt, that 1980 team, still to this day, has had such an influence on American hockey.”
After sitting out the last two Winter Olympics, the NHL’s best returned to international play this month for a tournament that replaced the league’s All-Star Game, a midseason exhibition that mattered little and was treated by the players as such.
Instead, the United States, Canada, Finland and Sweden all sent their stars. And something happened once they started playing for their countries: The hockey has been historic, especially the fight-filled round-robin matchup between the North Americans on Saturday that was the most-watched non-Stanley Cup Final game in a decade.
“Anybody that thought they were going to come in here and see an All-Star Game was sorely, sorely mistaken. This has been anything but,” Canada coach Jon Cooper said Wednesday. “It’s been all-stars, but it’s not been an All-Star Game.”
Add in the cross-border tension following President Donald Trump’s tariff war and his calls for Canada to be made the 51st state, and the tournament has much of the flavor of the Cold War meeting with the Soviets in Lake Placid.
Canadian fans loudly booed the U.S. national anthem Saturday night in Montreal. in Boston on Monday, when the TD Garden public address announcer called for respect, the payback for “O Canada” was tepid; instead, the Americans belted out “The Star-Spangled Banner” at full throat.
“All that stuff — throw it all out the window. It’s one game here, and one game for everything,” U.S. forward Matthew Tkachuk said. “Our team’s helped grow the game here in this country already. And I think a win can just knock that door right down and open up a whole new wave of hockey players throughout the whole country.”
Canadian forward Brad Marchand, who plays for the Boston Bruins and will be skating on what is ordinarily his home ice, dismissed the political angle, saying the hockey was good enough to sell itself. He recalled watching in his family’s basement when the Canadians beat the U.S. in the gold medal game of the 2002 Salt Lake City Games.
And he hopes some kid in Nova Scotia was watching when the Americans and Canadians matched up on Saturday in Montreal, or again on Thursday night in Boston.
“This will be another memory, another core memory for a lot of a lot of kids growing up, a lot of hockey fans for both American and Canadian players — and probably kids all across the world,” he said. “So it’s a gift and a privilege to play in these games. And definitely one you don’t take for granted.”
The 3-1 U.S. victory in the round-robin began with three fights in the first nine seconds, then settled into a fast-paced clinic that ranks among the top games in international hockey history.
The sequel “feels bigger than that,” Tkachuk said.
“It’s going to be an incredible environment,” he said. “Obviously, wearing the jersey and representing your country is such an incredible honor and what we play for. But the opportunity that we have is something that — I don’t even think we thought was possible and what we could create.”
That’s what compelled Ted Sells to make a five-hour drive from his home in Gull Lake, Saskatchewan, to a 12-hour flight through Calgary and Dallas to get to Boston for the title game. He wandered through the TD Garden pro shop looking for Canadian gear and saw none; a clerk told him they were sold out.
Sells said he hoped the teams could set aside the politics and just play hockey.
“Everybody has their team and their favorite,” he said. “But they shake hands at the end. And that’s good.”
Across the store James Kopacki said he had no animosity toward the Canadians; he was deciding whether to buy his wife, a Bruins fan, a Marchand jersey. The U.S. Navy veteran came up from Fort Worth, Texas, to watch the game, buying tickets after watching the Americans beat Canada in the opening round.
“That game turned out to be so good. That’s why we’re here,” he said. “I’ve never seen a game like that, as far as the tension and the desire to win. And not just that: the tension between our countries.”
Kopacki said he spent $1,500 on the tickets, and he’s been monitoring the price as the hype increases.
“If the tickets reach $5,000,” he said, “then we’re going to sell them and go to a bar in Boston and watch for free.”
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