21-02-2025
Passion, skill, hate (on the ice) as Team USA plays Canada for 4 Nations Face-Off title at TD Garden
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It was the second time in six days the North American puck superpowers faced off, following Team USA's emotionally-spiked 3-1 win Saturday night in Montreal.
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The Yanks opened play at Bell Centre by initiating three fights in the opening nine seconds, which in itself was enough to make the Garden a double-runnered cauldron of hard feelings and national pride for the rematch.
USA fans, one or two no doubt carrying signs mostly saying, 'Hooray for our side', had to wonder if blood would be spilled again in the old West End. Hockey fans forever will have that primal thirst for a cocktail of round-house rights with shots on net.
Two hours prior to puck drop, boisterous chants of 'USA!, USA! USA!' erupted around the Bobby Orr statue outside TD Garden, loud enough at times to echo all the way to Parry Sound, Ontario. Fans decked out in Canada and USA sweaters and caps streamed in and out of North Station and shimmied cheek-to-jowl the aisles of the jampacked Bruins Pro Shop.
At least a half-dozen of the proud USA fans in the crush of humanity rocked their 'Eruzione 21″ red, white, and blue sweaters. It was a night of national pride and long memories. US captain Mike Eruzione and his band of ragtag Olympic brothers dismissed the mighty Soviet Union, 4-3, at Lake Placid, Feb. 22, 1980. Forty-five years later, the luster still shines on that eventual gold medal.
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There also was a simmering subtext to the 4 Nations Face-Off final because of the, shall we say, quirky politics that have existed for weeks now ever since President Trump began expressing his yearning to make Canada part of the United States.
POTUS has been clear he'd like to expand America's 'Original 50″ brand, be it by adding Canada or Greenland or … Trump grew up in Queens. Must have inherited the hockey gene from the Broadway Blueshirts.
President Trump chose not to take up Team USA's offer to attend the final, but the Bench Boss in Chief did jump on the blower and offered the stick-carrying troops best wishes in the fight against America's mortal hockey enemy to the north.
'I don't know if it gives us that much of a boost — we were pretty jacked up anyway,' noted the Blue Jacket's Zach Werenski, the defenseman from Grosse Pointe, Mich. 'I think it's just one of those things, you'll look back on it and you got a call from the president of the United States — a cool moment, for sure.'
The erudite Jon Cooper, coach of Team Canada, politely downplayed what role, if any, politics might have played in the USA-Canada grudge match Part Deux.
'Other than the fact … the talk of [Canada] becoming the 51st state,' mused Cooper with subtle sarcasm, 'and someone saying, 'Wow, we'd have one helluva hockey team.' '
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Team America entered the night without Charlie McAvoy on their blue line. McAvoy, the Bruins' No. 1 defenseman, earlier Thursday checked out of Mass. General Hospital, some 72 hours after he was admitted because of severe shoulder pain.
McAvoy, 27, could miss substantial playing time with the Bruins as he recovers from a collarbone/shoulder injury, and an accompanying infection. The Bruins resume league play Saturday with the Ducks in town.
Mike Sullivan, the Team USA coach who is also McAvoy's father-in-law, reported late in the morning that his son-in-law's health is on the uptick.
'Charlie's doing very well,' noted Sullivan, the ex-Bruins bench boss and two-time Stanley Cup winner as the Penguins coach. 'He's progressing very well. He's obviously disappointed … but he's doing extremely well.'
Before leaving the Garden following Team USA's late-morning workout, Sullivan said he was uncertain if McAvoy would be in the building for the final.
Cooper tweaked Canada's lineup slightly, subbing in Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis for the Flyers' Travis Konecny Jarvis was jacked, not only because of his chance to play for the title, but also because a car full of his longtime pals from Winnipeg, Manitoba, made the 30-your drive (1,850 miles) to watch their bud play for Canada. Who was left to tend their backyard rink?
'These are the guys I've played hockey with since I was 7 years old,' said Jarvis, his smile that of at least an 8-year-old. 'They're basically family. Shows how crazy Canadians are, I guess.'
Cooper, apprised of the traveling Manitobans about to tool down Causeway, smiled and shook his head in admiration.
'Proud to be of the same heritage as those guys,' said Cooper, his name twice on the Cup from his tenure behind the Lightning bench. 'Because we have the same passion. And it shows how much this sport and these players, how much it means to them. Wow … it's one thing [to make that drive] in June, but … February … that's a tough one.'
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4 Nations is in the books. The best-on-best tournament played well, the overall skill and speed of play mesmerizing. The players seamlessly ducked out of the NHL's grueling 82-game schedule without a blink, and fulfilled their No. 1 promise: put on a show to remember.
'We're here to celebrate the sport,' said Cooper. " For me, we are here to celebrate a game and, if after this game, all the little girls out there and all the little boys out there are inspired by the players in this game and how they complete … if after watching tonight they go and become hockey players, that's the real win.
Kevin Paul Dupont can be reached at
