Something happened last Saturday night during the first Canada vs USA matchup in the 4 Nations Face-Off. Hockey fans were tuned in, of course, but then the puck dropped, and so did the gloves, and then the eyes of the entire sports world turned towards Montreal.
Team USA’s Matthew Tkachuk started a fight with Canada’s Brandon Hagel. As the fists started to fly, the Bell Centre reached a fever pitch. The crowd was roaring, the players were all standing on the benches tapping their sticks on the boards in support.
As Matthew Tkachuk was going to the penalty box, on the ESPN broadcast, Ray Ferraro stated, “I’m standing down here, and I think there’s zero chance that we see the puck hit the ice for more than one second before we’re going to see both Tkachuk brothers sitting in the same penalty box.”
Moments later, as the puck was dropped on the ensuing faceoff, Brady Tkachuk dropped the gloves with Sam Bennett. The crowd of 21,000 plus was going crazy at this point, the sound was deafening. Before the Tkachuk brothers were even sitting down in the box, JT Miller scrapped with Colton Parayko. That was it; the narrative was set, three fights in nine seconds between the USA and Canada, and all of a sudden, the entire sports world was talking about hockey.
Non-Hockey World Reaction
It was fascinating to see, in real-time, comments coming in online from non-hockey people. Onlookers who don’t regularly watch hockey were taken aback by the tension and intensity of that game. In this day and age, where the NFL Pro Bowl has literally turned into a flag football game, and NBA players sit out of meaningful regular season games, the rest of the sports world seemed excited to see something with a pulse.
Another interesting angle to witness in real-time was that the NBA All-Star festivities were happening at the same time. The juxtaposition of these two events highlighted the direction that these two leagues could be going in from here. The NBA is a league focused on the players’ drama and building super teams. The NHL has stars, but those stars are sacrificing their bodies to win an exhibition tournament for their home country. The NBA couldn’t get LeBron James to even suit up for the All-Star Game, yet the NHL had players trying to knock each other out for national pride.
Fortunately, what followed was a fantastic hockey game. Connor McDavid lit the lamp with a beautiful goal, but the underdog US squad came…
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