The timing couldn’t be better for a good old-fashioned Canada-U.S. showdown … on the ice.
You may have heard that the current U.S. president, a certain Donald J. Trump, has been threatening to annex Canada and make us the 51st state. At first, we all thought this 51st-state nonsense was simply an inappropriate joke from a fellow who often says inappropriate things, but at this point it’s clearly anything but a laughing matter.
The threat of 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods entering the U.S. is still hanging like a sword of Damocles over our country and relations between the two countries are as strained as they’ve ever been in our lifetime.
So will all of this politicize the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament happening here in Montreal this week and set to move to Boston next week? Team Canada and the U.S. squad will be going at it Saturday night at the Bell Centre and I think most of us here in Canada are hoping that the championship game next Thursday will be a Canada-U.S. rematch.
The format of the tourney is simple. Each team plays three games in the round-robin phase and the two top point-getters advance to the one-game final.
There is no question Trump’s recent bellicose behaviour toward his northern neighbour has heightened the intensity around the Canada-U.S. game and it’ll be interesting to see how the Bell Centre crowd reacts Saturday night. Wednesday at the same rink, a good chunk of the sellout crowd lustily booed all of the Swedish players that were introduced at the start of the game and Team U.S. captain Auston Matthews was even more enthusiastically booed when he came to centre ice before the game. He of course is doubly boo-able — he leads both the American team and the Toronto Maple Leafs.
I’m not advocating booing, but I would note that Montreal hockey fans regularly boo the best players on any opposing team playing at the Bell Centre, a pretty dumb habit if you ask me. Why boo the Swedes Wednesday? That just lacks class.
But I have to say I’d sure love to see it come down to a Canada-U.S. final and have it go to OT … and then see Captain Canada, Sidney Crosby, pull off his usual heroics and win it all for the good guys. If President Trump is in the crowd at the TD Garden in Boston, all the better.
Wednesday at the Bell Centre, Crosby was as great as ever, garnering three assists, including the most important one, on Mitch Marner’s overtime winner.
And speaking of crowd reaction, how weird was it to see over 21,000 fans at the Bell Centre wildly cheering Marner AND earlier our favourite bête noire from the Boston Bruins, Brad Marchand, who also scored.
The fact is, and this goes well beyond any Trump-related issues, when a team hits the ice wearing red Team Canada jerseys, we all suddenly come out of the closet as nationalists. It happened with the Summit Series against the Soviets in 1972 and it’s happened at every Olympics and World Cup since.
That crowd was mega-pumped at the Bell Centre Wednesday, fuelled by the surprise appearance at the pre-game ceremony of Mario Lemieux, the greatest living Québécois hockey player (in my humble opinion)! It was also neat to see so many in the crowd wearing Team Canada jerseys.
At McLean’s Pub before the game, most of the fans I spoke with downplayed the politics and no one was going to admit publicly that they supported booing the Americans.
Ryan Maurice came all the way from Fredricton with two of his friends to see the game Wednesday and there he was sitting at McLean’s in his Mitch Marner Leafs jersey talking about how much Team Canada means to him. He said he thinks hockey should be above politics but, and this is a crucial ‘but’, if the whole Trump war of words helps inspire Team Canada, he’s not against it.
“I hope that political issues really don’t get in the way,” Maurice said. “I find hockey bigger than all that. But if that’s an issue and if that’s something that gives us an extra boost, and gives us something (that’s alright) … hockey is our sport. So we should come home with (the championship trophy).”
Maurice’s pal Justin Brien, also from Fredricton, is a Leafs fan – I know, I almost stopped talking to him! – but as a Maritimer, he naturally enough grew up idolizing Sid the Kid, who hails from Halifax, and was proudly wearing his Crosby Team Canada sweater on Wednesday.
“If this is one of the last times he can play on Team Canada, then this is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Brien. “Seeing him play with Connor McDavid, Cale Makar, (Nathan) Mackinnon, and all the big guys… it’s huge for me.”
Added their friend Aaron Partington: “U.S.A. might have good goalies but they’ll have to work hard to beat Canada, I’ll tell you that.”
Brien sums it up best: “We’re here to see the best players in the world play. That’s why you come so far. To come to Montreal and see them play is probably the highlight of my year.”