The 4 Nations Face-Off has been nothing short of spectacular.
The players fully bought in, and the pace of the international best-on-best play has been flying across the ice to the shock and awe of an electric Bell Centre in Montreal, and then TD Garden in Boston when the tournament made the switch for the final stage.
Flyers' goalie sSam Ersson recovered from a bad bounce early to nab one away from Team USA in a 2-1 win for Sweden on Monday night.
Connor McDavid has been creating magic up and down the rink in his first time ever getting to skate for Team Canada on a stage like this, and he's been getting checked hard in the process trying to do it, too – with no complaints either. He's just been getting right up to get back in the play and keep skating.
Another Flyer, Travis Sanheim, jumped in on a rush with McDavid to generate a Brayden Point goal that helped send Canada past Finland and to the championship game – yes, Flyers fans, that's a real sentence – and speaking of that championship game, it's going to be the U.S. vs. Canada tonight in Boston.
They played each other already Saturday night in Montreal, and there were three fights in just nine seconds of game time, a lot of bad blood, shouting and shoving after, and at the end of all of it, a 3-1 win for the U.S. in a masterclass defensive lockdown of a high-powered Canada roster.
The whole tournament has been an absolute rush, viewership has been turning up in droves because of it, those three fights in quick succession were all over the news and social media and garnering tons of interest outside of the core hockey sphere by morning, and it feels almost certain that all of those eyes, old and new, will be tuning in tonight to see the U.S-Canada rematch.
It's hockey at its very best, a total shot in the arm for what has long been a low point in the middle of the NHL season (I never want to see a slog of an All-Star Game again after this), and somehow, a natural buildup into what players have taken as an honor and career milestone.
"Put this jersey on… it's what dreams are made of." 🇺🇸
Dylan Larkin joins @sportsnetkyle to discuss tonight's #4Nations Face-Off matchup between USA and Canada. pic.twitter.com/CObd4iVWzD— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 16, 2025
But, like it or not, acknowledge it or not, current events have also made the 4 Nations tournament something else.
Last Saturday night between the U.S. and Canada in Montreal, and tonight for the championship rematch in Boston, there's a politically charged angle to it all.
Donald Trump has been aggressive in trying to impose tariffs on Canada since he's gotten back into office as U.S. president, and of late, has been bringing up repeatedly – threateningly, even – the thought of making Canada the 51st state.
Understandably, Canada has taken major exception to that, fans of Canadian NHL teams have taken to booing the American national anthem during their home games over the past month in protest, and last Saturday night, with Team USA right there on the ice and with a huge North American audience watching, the Montreal crowd delivered the harshest downpour of boos yet – made all the worse by a plea for respect from the PA announcer beforehand that was immediately rejected.
How the "Star-Spangled Banner" sounded inside Bell Centre before USA-Canada at #4Nations.
Plenty of boos. pic.twitter.com/EFoKJMFuAh— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) February 16, 2025
And for anyone who wants to argue that politics should be kept out of sports, or try to bury their heads in the sand and ignore the issue, well, you can't.
1) Canadians took that decision into their own hands already. They're upset.
2) Bill Guerin, the general manager for the Minnesota Wild and Team USA for 4 Nations, poured kerosene on the whole thing Monday when he decided it was a great time to go on Fox News and openly say there's a "political flair" to the U.S.-Canada rivalry, then put a feeler out for Trump to be there tonight in Boston (he's not coming).
"Canada-U.S. is a huge rivalry in hockey," Guerin said. "I think there was a little bit of a political flair to it. It's just the time that we're in, and then I think our guys used that as inspiration. If you let it get the better of you, then you're in trouble, but I really do think the players use it as inspiration."
Or a needless detractor from what's been great hockey and one of the NHL's bigger successes in a long time, like Guerin flipped it into.
"We would love it if President Trump was in attendance," Guerin continued. "We got a room full of proud American players and coaches and staff, and listen, we're just trying to represent our country the best way we can."
And look, Guerin can say what he wants. Freedom of speech and all that. Just like it's fair game to point out that he was under investigation by the Wild for alleged verbal abuse two years ago – he kept his job, but the team employee of a decade who filed the complaint left the organization soon after. And before that in 2020, he was named in a lawsuit against the Pittsburgh Penguins that alleged Guerin told a former assistant coach for their AHL affiliate to "keep quiet" about an alleged sexual assault on that coach's wife by the AHL team's own head coach. That lawsuit was settled in 2021.
Anyway, the U.S.-Canada championship game tonight is probably going to be great, maybe even an all-timer up there with the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
But make no mistake, the rivalry is political right now, and that's not going to be avoidable as everyone's watching tonight.
Just hope no one says anything cringeworthy after regardless of the result.
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