Saturday was rivalry day at the 4 Nations Face-Off. Finland was taking on Sweden, and Canada was facing the USA. While Patrik Laine had said the day before the game, “We hate them, that’s pretty much it,” the tilt was mostly non-violent. The evening match-up was anything but, however.
When the puck hit the ice, Matthew Tkachuk jumped on Brandon Hagel, and a furious fight followed. Both players were sent to the box, and a second later, Brady Tkachuk took on Sam Bennett in another spirited battle that had the crowd fired up while the pugilist headed to the sin bin.
Matthew Tkachuk. Brady Tkachuk. JT Miller.
3 fights in 9 seconds to get this USA/Canada game started. Unbelievable.
Hockey is the greatest sport on the planetpic.twitter.com/f4dbIGOf5o
— Josh Reynolds (@JoshReynolds24) February 16, 2025
Nine seconds in, J.T. Miller cross-checked Colton Parayko before inviting him to dance, filling up the penalty box in the process. After nine seconds, very little hockey had been played, but the tone was set for the game.
That’s when former Montreal Canadiens enforcer Chris “Knuckles” Nilan took to X and wrote that he didn’t know if he could keep watching the game:
Oh my God I don’t know if I can watch U.S.vs Canada the fighting and violence just makes me want to watch basketball
— Chris Nilan (@KnucklesNilan30) February 16, 2025
If it can be hard at times to “sense the tone”, as Monica once said in Friends, in writing, there was no way to take that tweet seriously. Nilan has made a career of fighting in the NHL, picking up 3043 penalty minutes in 688 NHL games, him not enjoying the start of that game would have been as possible as the Canadiens and the Quebec Nordiques not hating each other.
While many people advocate for fighting to be taken out of hockey, the Bell Centre crowd seemed to enjoy the start of the game; the building was so loud that it felt like the roof might come off. Team Canada coach John Cooper, who isn’t a big fan of fighting himself, said in his post-game interview, “I didn’t see anyone running for the exits.”
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