They crossed the 49th parallel, from Manitoba into North Dakota — and drove through day and night — across eight states and more than 3,000 kilometers, according to the Canadian odometer on their Nissan Murano. Two canceled flights meant they were desperate. So they piled into a car, stopping only for gas. And, despite a two-hour detour through Milwaukee, off a middle-of-the-night wrong turn, they made it to Boston in 30 hours.
They were five among the thousands of Canadians who lined up outside TD Garden hours before the start of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off final between Canada and the United States. “We’re here for the Maple Leaf,” said Matt McLeod. And they were there for their childhood friend Seth Jarvis, who was living his dream of playing for Canada.
But at the most hyped international hockey game in more than a decade, everyone had their reasons to care. And beyond the 60 minutes and overtime, it felt like there was so much more than a win at stake.
With more than a decade of built-up tension between the two rivals, heat on the ice was inevitable. But for many, the championship game wasn’t about bragging rights alone. A looming trade war between the United States and Canada, following tariff threats by President Donald Trump and repeated claims that he’d like the sovereign neighbor to become the country’s 51st state, created an unparalleled level of hostility between the two nations.
Canadian fans booed the American national anthem when the teams met in a round-robin match in Montreal, which was followed by three fights in the first nine seconds of the game.
It was impossible to ignore the wider implications, especially when the U.S. team’s general manager Bill Guerin said his players used the political tensions as inspiration and invited Trump to attend the final. Before the championship, Trump encouraged the Americans while taking another shot at Canada becoming the 51st state and referring to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a governor.
Outside TD Garden, that tension was evident hours before the opening face off.
“Welcome to the USA, Canada’s 11th Province,” read a massive sign carried by Ian MacKinnon, as fans dressed in Canada and USA jerseys shuffled in a queue that stretched down Causeway Street. He’s an American, by way of grandparents who first immigrated to Nova Scotia. MacKinnon doesn’t care much about sports, but he biked there with his sign in hopes of making a point and maybe offering a touch of levity.
And most people did, while some tossed light jabs.
“51st state!” one man yelled as he passed in line.
“U-S-A! U-S-A!” chanted another.
One fan tried to rip the sign from MacKinnon’s hand, but he held firm.
In the concourse, American fans posed with Mark Goggin, who’d painted his face red and white, with temporary tattoos of a cartoon moose and beaver on each cheek. Goggin crossed the border from his home in Windsor to catch a flight from Detroit with his son. As innocent and playful as most of the interactions between the fans were, Goggin felt the wider implications that the game carried seemed somewhat lost on his American counterparts. They didn’t seem to appreciate just how serious Canadians had taken the threats and taunts, he said. It might be fun and games to them, but in Canada the aggression had spurred a rush of patriotism.
“Canadians are so pumped to win this game. Because we can’t beat Trump, right?” Goggin said. “It’s the only thing we can beat them at — hockey.”
His eyes reddened as he described the emotion many Canadians carried into the final.
“It’s so big for Canadians,” Goggin said. “It’s more than a game.”
The 30-year-old said the outside context matters.
“Canada will never be the 51st state. … It’s very disrespectful,” he said. “Our soldiers have died next to their soldiers in wars, which we do happily because they’re our brothers. But that brother is acting a little too aggressive right now. And today we’ll show them who’s the king of hockey.”
For more than a century, hockey has been Canada’s game. But it has long been anticipated that the Americans would catch up and possibly surpass Canada. Recent trends underscore that reality. The majority of Canadian NHLers play for American teams. And as has been pointed out many times, no Canadian team has won a Stanley Cup since 1993.
That tension filled the TD Garden too. It hung uncomfortably when Wayne Gretzky, hockey’s greatest icon, stepped onto the ice representing Canada in a pregame ceremony wearing a suit, to respectful stick taps and cheers. Mike Eruzione, captain of the 1980 Miracle on Ice team, followed to a riotous roar wearing a U.S.A. jersey — fist-bumping the American players and waving his hands to pump up the crowd as they chanted “U.S.A.”
It wasn’t lost on many Canadians watching that Gretzky, star of the famed 1987 Canada Cup-winning team, attended President Trump’s election victory party at Mar-a-Lago and his recent inauguration ceremony.
A smattering of boos greeted the Canadian national anthem, but a chorus rose alongside singer Chantal Kreviazuk, who made her own comment on the moment by changing the lyrics in a verse from “in all of us command” to “that only us command.” Kreviazuk later posted on Instagram that she believed Canadians needed to stand up and use their voices in the face of a “potentially consequential moment.”
“We should express our outrage in the face of any abuses of power,” she wrote.
A hockey game happened, and a thrilling one, with a crowd heavily on the American side.
But after the most dramatic show of international men’s hockey in more than a decade — sealed by Connor McDavid’s overtime winning goal — it was Canadians piling on the ice and embracing in the stands. American fans streamed out into the concourse as “O Canada” played once more, to fireworks around a giant Canadian flag. The red-and-white jerseys filled the lower bowl, surrounded by empty seats.
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