NHL’s 4 Nations Buzz Boosted by Political Tensions

Since he won the election in November, U.S. President Donald Trump has been feuding with soon-to-be former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The tension has boiled over into multiple sporting events recently, and the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off title game Thursday night took place against the backdrop of that icy political relationship.

For months, Trump has made comments suggesting that Canada should become the 51st state—and during his Super Bowl interview in February with Fox News, he confirmed he wasn’t joking about the matter. On Feb. 1, Trump announced he would impose a 25% tariff on Canadian goods, leading NHL and NBA fans to boo “The Star-Spangled Banner” at games across Canada. Trump agreed to pause the tariffs just days later, and has since floated a new “fair and reciprocal” policy.

Trump did not attend the title game for 4 Nations Face-Off on Thursday night, saying in a social media post that he would be speaking at the Republican Governors Association in D.C. (Trump attended several recent major sporting events, including an Alabama-Georgia football game, the Super Bowl, and the Daytona 500 over the weekend.) But Trump and his team made several comments about the matchup, and confirmed that he would be watching.

On Thursday morning, Trump called the U.S. team to wish them good luck, and once again said through social media that “someday, maybe soon” Canada could become the next state—adding that the nation could have “FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated his position in her Thursday briefing, saying: “We look forward to the United States beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada.”

Canadian singer Chantal Kreviazuk expressed her opinion while performing her country’s national anthem before the game. Kreviazuk changed the lyrics in “O Canada” Thursday night from “in all of us command” to “that only us command.” She also shared an image of the phrase, which she had written on her hand, on social media with emojis of a Canadian flag and flexed arm muscle.

Kreviazuk told the Associated Press she made the change “because I believe in democracy, and a sovereign nation should not have to be defending itself against tyranny and fascism.”

The tournament garnered a lot of buzz from both hockey and non-hockey fans largely because of the intensity on display from the first game. When the U.S. and Canada played one another in the round robin Saturday, three fights broke out in the first nine seconds of play. Players have also chipped one another off the ice. Players from Team USA said they had planned their fights in a group chat ahead of time, after which a Canadian player said his team was “playing for the flag, not the cameras” and didn’t “have any group chats going on.” One of the U.S. players, Matthew Tkachuk, responded, “Maybe their team doesn’t like each other if they don’t have group chats.”

On Thursday, the Canadians came out hot with a goal within the first five minutes of the game. The matchup eventually went into overtime, and the Canadians won the game 3–2 on a goal from Connor McDavid.

Trump didn’t comment on the game at all on his social media platform, Truth Social, once the puck dropped. He had nothing to say after the U.S. lost, either. 

After the game, Trudeau posted on social media: “You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game.”