Tkachuk brothers chirp Canada and Draisaitl after USA wins Olympic gold

Feb 23 2026, 8:08 pm

The Tkachuk brothers did not take the high road after defeating Canada and capturing Olympic gold for the United States.

Matthew and Brady Tkachuk have been making headlines during the Olympics, particularly for their antics on the ice. The brothers went viral for chirping Leon Draisaitl during a USA-Germany preliminary game, and they are rubbing salt in the wound once again.

Wingmen, a podcast that Brady and Matthew host together, took to social media shortly after Team USA’s victory with a photo depicting six Canadian bridesmaids and one German bridesmaid standing next to an American bride.

That is a direct reference to the brothers telling Draisaitl that he was “always the bridesmaid, never the bride,” earlier in the tournament.

It’s a bit of a strange chirp for the Tkachuk brothers to lump in Canadian players in this specific chirp. Canada has dominated best-on-best hockey for the better part of the last 26 years, with Olympic gold medal wins in Salt Lake City 2002, Vancouver 2010, and Sochi 2014, as well as last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off.

On top of that, Canada has won the IIHF World Championships three times over the last 10 years (2023, 2021, 2016), to the USA’s one (2025). If anything, the Americans have served as the bridesmaid to Canada up until this point.

For Draisaitl, it makes a little more sense, as he’s been left at the altar of two straight Stanley Cup Finals against Matthew’s Florida Panthers and was unable to have the Olympic success he and Germany were hoping for.

You’d think that professional athletes would have a little more class for their opponents, over whom they barely eked out an OT victory, after winning such a big title. Yet, the Tkachuk brothers have built a brand that is built on bombastic and often antagonistic actions.

It’ll surely get under the skin of some Canadian hockey fans, which is nothing new for the Tkachuks.

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