Canada forward Brad Marchand called out Team USA forward Brady Tkachuk (C) and his brother Matthew Tkachuk for trash talking after a win in the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off finale Thursday in Boston. Photo by Martin Divisek/EPA-EFE
Feb. 21 (UPI) — Trash talk from the Americans, specifically the Tkachuk brothers, gave Canada motivational “ammo” to fuel their win over Team USA in the first 4 Nationals Face-Off finale in Boston, veteran forward Brad Marchand said.
“They play their game,” Marchand said after Canada’s 3-2 overtime triumph Thursday at TD Garden. “They do what they do.
“Sometimes when you shoot your mouth off in the media, it bites you. You can do that during the season, but when you’re playing best-on-best, it’s different. And they got a little bit ahead of themselves.”
Marchand made the comments moments after star forward Connor McDavid scored a game-winning goal to cap the dramatic rivalry rematch. The win improved the Canadians’ record to 15-5-1 against Team USA in best-on-best matchups.
Drama filled the series on and off the ice, with jabs exchanged between players and supporters of both countries. President Donald Trump refereed to Canada as the “51st state” of the United States, while Canadians booed during the national anthem before Canada met Team USA in the round-robin stage of the tournament.
More ire emerged when Team USA’s Matthew Tkachuk, Brady Tkachuk and J.T. Miller revealed that they decided in a group chat that they would start the round-robin meeting with fights. That led Canadian forward Brandon Hagel to imply the Americans were playing for “cameras,” more than for their flag.
Matthew Tkachuk then threw another verbal jab, speculating that maybe the Canadians “don’t like each other if they don’t have group chats.”
“They’re great players and there’s not many guys in the league that play the way they do and they’re extremely effective, but when you start giving teams ammo, it can work against you as well,” Marchand said of the slights.
The Americans edged Canada 33-27 in shots on goal, 28-25 in hits and 27-19 in blocked shots, but totaled 23 giveaways compared to 18 for their foes Thursday in Boston. Canada forward Mitch Marner logged two assists. Forwards Sam Bennett and Nathan MacKinnon joined McDavid in the scoring column. Goalie Jordan Binnington logged 31 saves.
MacKinnon gave Canada a lead 4:48 into the finale. Brady Tkachuk tied the score about 12 minutes later. Team USA defenseman Jake Sanderson scored a go-ahead goal 7:32 into the second period. Bennett tied the score once again 14 minutes into the third.
Matthew Tkachuk, who teamed up with his brother to provide eight hits on Canada in their first 4 Nations Face-Off meeting, appeared on the ice for just 6:47 in the second meeting, missing time because of a lower-body injury.
“I think we left absolutely everything out there,” Brady Tkachuk said. “Just the sacrifice that we had for each other. I know it was a 10-day tournament, but it felt like we’d been playing together for this whole year. This is such a close group. This group is something special and I know we’re going to have a lot of success down the road.”
Hagel delivered a final jab at Team USA through his Instagram story on Friday, posting a screenshot of a group chat, which was titled “Champions” and showed an image of a Canadian flag.n
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also joined in on the retorts, writing: “You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game,” on X.
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