Matthew Tkachuk chirps Team Canada again and suggests players don't like each other

For anyone watching the USA-Canada 4 Nations Face-Off matchup on Saturday night, it’s the kind of game you knew immediately when watching that it would be talked about for decades.

With three fights in just nine seconds to kick off the contest, the physical nature of the game — one that had been 11 years since the last men’s best-on-best contest between the two border rivals — the mid-season event appears to have over-delivered on the hype front.

And with Canada and USA set to face off once again in Thursday night’s championship game in Boston, the players haven’t stopped mouthing off against each other over the past week.

First, American forward Brady Tkachuk suggested that the Americans planned the ambush in a group chat before the game, with himself, older brother Matthew and J.T. Miller all dropping the gloves to begin the contest to send a message.

“I did it for the flag and not the cameras,” Canada’s Brandon Hagel told reporters of why he fought Matthew Tkachuk. “We don’t have any group chats going… That’s a part of Canada that we have in there. We don’t need to initiate anything.”

The elder Tkachuk took a bit of a barb at Hagel’s proclamation when reporters asked about it today.

“Well, I mean, maybe their team doesn’t like each other if they don’t have group chats,” Tkachuk said today, per Sportsnet’s Eric Engels. “I think that our team does not care about anything that they say, and there’s been a lot of chatter and talk from individuals, but we care about one thing in this room, and we have millions of people that are watching us and supporting us around this country, and we’re very prideful in playing for them and the guys in the room. It’s an opportunity of a lifetime for us.”

In any case, it’s a little under 24 hours before the two countries can settle the score on the ice, with bragging rights from Thursday night’s victory likely carrying through until next year’s 2026 Winter Olympics, the next planned true best-on-best tournament.

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