A Little More Than a Game
- brendan kapfer
- Feb 23, 2025
- 7 min read
Last Thursday had one of the most exciting events in recent memory for hockey fans. It featured the first best-on-best hockey final between the US and Canada in over a dozen years. Given the political tensions between the two countries, this game meant so much more than just a regular all star showdown between great players. What made this game so special was the narratives and how one team handled the pressure of giving their country a much needed victory.
Author's Disclaimer: Here I will be discussing politics in this article, so for those who maybe a little more sensitive to facts than most, this article is not for you. To all those who are currently feeling the effects of a vile group of people in power, know I am with you. No matter your race, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, or language you speak this place is open to you. If you don't like somebody because of any of those things, this space is simply not for you. If you yourself, or you have family from another place of the world just know I love you and the space I am trying to build will always be one that is open to having you. In the coming months, I will be releasing articles about history and politics for those who are interested. Sports is for everybody. Let's get into it.
Off the Ice:
After Donald Trump became the president-elect for a second time, he started to talk about annexing Canada. He first mentioned this on social media on December 18th, saying “No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year?” I don’t think this is exactly the way it works, as according to the government foreign assistance website, since they started tracking foreign assistance (2001) Canada has not received more than thirty-five million dollars in a fiscal year. Trump ended his daily online tirade by saying that they will become the 51st state.
This set the stage perfectly for a showdown on ice a couple of days short of two months’ time in the Four nations face off. Donald Trump antagonized the entire nation of Canada for the past three-plus months by talking about making them the newest American state. Talking about annexing the country and hitting Canada hard economically, has brought many Canadian hockey fans to boo the US national anthem.
Let’s bring it back to before inauguration day when on January Seventh, in a press conference held by Donald Trump he stoked tensions to a boiling point. Trump said when asked if he’d use military force to annex Canada, “No -- economic force because Canada and the United States, that would really be something. You get rid of that artificially drawn line and you take a look at what that looks like, and it would also be much better for national security.”
Trump discussed expanding US territory in his inauguration speech which did not make Canadians feel any better about the new US President. Then in early February, Trump then announced Tariffs starting on March 4th, 25% tariffs will be implemented on all imports from Canada as well as 25% on all steel and aluminum imports. The effects of these tariffs are yet to be seen because they haven’t been enacted. That said, there is an awful lot of fear in Canada right now, regarding the implementation of these tariffs and exactly why Trump has decided to start them.
According to the Bank of Canada, “the decline in US demand for Canadian exports is about 40% larger than the historical average.” There is a chart that describes the expected effect of these tariffs on the Canadian people. According to the chart below, it will take three years just for Canada to get back to breaking even in terms of GDP. Even then, the GDP will still be slowed to a high and severe effect. This is just to name a few negative effects of the pending tariffs on Canada.
On February 1st, the Ottawa Senators were hosting the Minnesota Wild in the first game played in Canada since the tariffs were announced. The fanbase of the team that plays in Canada’s capitol booed quite loudly at the end of the US national anthem in protest to the tariffs. The booing and protest of the current US Government has continued throughout the month of February and in the matchup on February 15th in Montreal between Canada and the US, the booing of the anthem was unmistakably heard. I don’t think that will go away anytime soon. If you oppose cancel culture, don’t you dare try to criticize people protesting the actions of a foreign government antagonizing them.
The disrespect shown to the nation of Canada, from Donald Trump and Team USA led to tensions being at an all-time high. Some players on the US seemed to be dumbfounded as to why Canadian fans would boo the national anthem. Vice President JD Vance even said on Thursday, “To Canada, if you guys don’t win, the tariffs are even higher.”
Meeting #1: February Fifteenth – Round Robin
In the first meeting between the two nations there were three fights within the first nine seconds. As to why that was the case, the Tkachuk brothers and JT Miller were in a group chat planning out who they were going to fight in the opening seconds. Brandon Hagel said in response on Tuesday, “I think we’re out there playing for the flag, not the cameras.”
JT Miller talked about how much of an honor it was to have Donald Trump call Team USA and have his support. In the same tweet Trump supported Team USA as he called Canada the 51st state. Team USA embraced this rhetoric and behind the bench of the team there were many fans with Make America Great Again hats on. A lot of boos throughout the crowd were heard when Wayne Gretzky was announced by the PA and the Canadian anthem was booed. The Americans embraced the role of the villains which made them the Soviets in this situation, and the Canadians the Americans. Which made it a little stupid to me as to why the Miracle on Ice locker room speech was played prior to overtime.
Back to Saturday night, Canada opened the scoring with a goal from Connor McDavid. Following the early goal, Jake Guentzel, and Dylan Larkin both scored for the US to give the US automatic berth into the championship game. A lot of talk following this game was questioning if the tides were turning into international hockey, as the US looked dominant in both of their first two games of the tournament.
Canada went to overtime against Sweeden in their opener and very nearly blew a four-goal lead in their match against Finland. Binnington did not look great against Finland or Sweeden which led many to believe the US would avenge the Olympic gold medal loss of 2010. For both teams, the final was about revenge. One about revenge on the ice, and the other revenge against hateful rhetoric.
Meeting #2: Final For All the Marbles
Thursday night, Nathan MacKinnon opened the scoring at one nothing. A beautiful shot that beat the best goalie in the NHL in Connor Hellebuyck. With that goal though, I am sure it brought relief yet cautious optimism to many Canadien fans seeing how last weekend’s game played out. Twelve minutes after MacKinnon’s goal, Brady Tkachuk found the equalizer with an assist from Toronto’s star boy Auston Matthews.
As the second period continued to go on, it felt like Team USA was rattling Team Canada emotionally. At the end of most dead pucks the teams were shoving each other which is the game the Americans wanted to play but certainly not the Canadiens. This style of play paid off for the Americans as they took the lead thanks to a Jake Sanderson snipe. Ironically, many people questioned why Sanderson was in the lineup as opposed to Quinn Hughes, but they seemed to have found their answer yesterday.
Although Canada did not score on the power play, a bad tripping penalty given up by Vincent Trocheck in his own net killed the US momentum. Funny enough, the penalty came right after a big check given to Trocheck by Anthony Cirelli. Cirelli got Trocheck to become emotional after a big physical hit. Again, Canada did not score on the power play and almost gave up a goal up a man, which gave many viewers including myself a sense of déjà vu from Saturday night.
I will not let it go unmentioned that Jacob Slavin, Jack Eichel and Jake Sanderson combined for thirteen blocked shots. With those blocked shots the task to defeat not only Connor Hellebuyck but also this strong American defense seemed impossible. Then suddenly, Mitch Marner created enough space for Sam Bennet taking three defenders with him to allow Sam Bennet to equalize the game.
The third period saw just four shots on target from Canada and eight from team USA. The save from both goalies is what brought this game to overtime and gave us my favorite thing in all of sports: sudden death winner-take-all hockey. In overtime, Team USA had the better chances and two more shots on target then team Canada. What they did not have was Jordan Binnington at the garden.
Binnington made stop after stop in the overtime period kept Team Canada in the game. At about the seventeen minute mark in overtime, both Sanderson and Auston Matthews had perfect opportunities to win the game and simply couldn’t beat Binnington. A little less than five minutes into the overtime period, Binnington made outstanding back-to-back saves amidst the onslaught of shots to the net from team USA. The question became when not if Team USA was going to find the winner as they had outshot Team Canada eight to two in the first five minutes of overtime.
Following the back-to-back stops, Canada slowed the game down. Then all of a sudden, a face-off won by Connor McDavid found its way to Cale Makar who gave the puck to Mitch Marner. With just enough space, Marner found the best player in the world who was wide open in front of the net who did what great players do: show up. McDavid won the trophy for Team Canada in one of the best hockey games you will see.
Post Game:
In the moments where the Four Nations trophy was presented much like after election day four years ago, there were few MAGA hats to be found. In an interview with Team Canada coach Jon Cooper following the game, he talked about what it meant for his nation. “This wasn’t a win for themselves, this was a win for forty million people.” Here, Cooper is referring to the forty million people that live in Canada. According to the NHL website, over a fourth of Canada tuned in to watch the four nations final.
Comments