After the anthem is booed, U.S. team comes out fighting in 4 Nations Face-Off victory over Canada

MONTREAL — Standing in the Montreal Canadiens locker room on Thursday night after the U.S. defeated Finland, 6-1, in an opening-round game of the 4 Nations Face-Off, forward J.T. Miller was asked about the national anthem being booed before the puck was dropped.

He gave the most Philly answer.

“I think we like it, not politically, but just in the sense of, we know where we’re at, in Canada,” he said. “I think that fires us up more than anything.”

If that doesn’t give you “No one likes us, we don’t care” vibes, than nothing will.

On Saturday, facing their hockey rivals to the north, the Americans finished the song. It was as if they were shouting from the ice to the rafters, deafening all the Canada chants in a 3-1 triumph. Fans in Canada have been booing the U.S. anthem because of political tensions between the nations over tariffs on Canadian imports.

“We needed to send a message. We’re here in Montreal on a Saturday night. We want it to be our time, and that message started right from the get-go,” forward Matthew Tkachuk said.

After listening to the “The Star-Spangled Banner” get booed again by the fans at the Bell Centre, it seemed to ignite the crowd.

The players on the ice? They were already ignited.

“There was a little discussion during the day,” forward Brady Tkachuk said.

Sitting next to him at the pod, his brother Matthew, with his trademark towel around his neck, said to him: “Tell the truth.”

Brady Tkachuk grinned and said: “Yeah, there was a group chat going on today [with his brother and Miller]. Still slept like a baby, though. We just kind of reaffirmed that we were going to do that.”

What were they going to do? How about three fights in the first nine seconds?

First up was Matthew Tkachuk. Two seconds in, off the opening faceoff, he dropped the gloves with Brandon Hagel, the American getting in some good punches. Brady Tkachuk cheered on his big brother before shooting Hagel’s glove down the ice.

Off the next faceoff, officially one second later, Brady Tkachuk and Sam Bennett — Matthew’s teammate on the Florida Panthers, whom he also played with in Calgary — got into a bare-knuckled brawl. The two threw haymakers as the crowd and the guys on the bench went wild.

After Tkachuk wrestled him down, Bennett clapped to the bench while Brady Tkachuk riled up his guys and the crowd and got a well-deserved high-five greeting from his brother.

Their father Keith told The Inquirer that he and Bill Guerin “were full of p— and vinegar” at the 1996 World Cup — which the U.S. won by beating Canada in a best-of-three for the first time in decades.

His boys are officially version 2.0.

And then, because who doesn’t love a trio, Miller crashed the net and dropped the gloves with defenseman Colton Parayko, who has at least 5 inches on him. It further ignited the crowd and Matthew Tkachuk was seen banging on the glass of the penalty box.

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“Just the building reacting, something I’m always going to remember, how that game started,” Flyers defenseman Travis Sanheim said. “Just the emotion of the game. I mean, that’s Canada-U.S. right there.”

The game was just nine seconds old and there were three donnybrooks.

“Mayhem,” Canada coach Jon Cooper said when asked to describe Saturday in one word.

The only problem is Miller was also called for cross-checking on the play. Flyers coach John Tortorella, an assistant for USA Hockey, was — as expected — quite animated on the bench. But the Americans came to play and held the highly potent Canada power play to one shot on goal.

Although Canada took a 1-0 lead on a Connor McDavid backhander over goalie Connor Hellebuyck, the American netminder should have been named the first star of the game. He made 25 saves, including back-to-back stops on Mark Stone and Thomas Harley, who was subbing for Cale Makar, out due to illness. Late in the game, Hellebuyck robbed McDavid dead-on in the slot.

“It was a gritty effort,” Hellebuyck said. “We played great to our details. I think we’re coming together as a group. Everyone is chipping in in every single way. Blocking shots, letting me see pucks, clearing rebounds. It’s what you want.”

What the pro-Canada crowd wanted was a win. But the Americans slammed the door on that, playing a physical, grinding style that dates back decades. The U.S. had 34 hits, none bigger than the one Charlie McAvoy threw on McDavid halfway through the first period with his team trailing 1-0.

“That also is a message-sending moment. Probably one of the plays of the game,” Matthew Tkachuk said of the hit. McAvoy nailed McDavid not long after, too. “They just scored a goal, the building was rocking and Charlie comes there and pops McDavid, like one of the hardest hits I’ve seen.”

Twenty-six seconds later, the Americans tied it on a Jake Guentzel goal from the left circle. Dylan Larkin made it 2-1 on a two-on-one in the second period and Guentzel added an empty-netter in the third.

Emotions kept growing across the night. “Canada” chants versus “U-S-A” chants rang down. Carey Price showed up in a Canada jersey and the crowd went wild. PK Subban was on the Jumbotron with Mark Messier and the crowd cheered. Stranger Things actor Gaten Matarazzo, who hails from Connecticut and was wearing a Chris Kreider Rangers jersey, was booed, as was figure skater Michelle Kwan, who introduced the U.S. team at the beginning of the game.

Of course, emotions ran on the bench. Tortorella was seen patting American captain Auston Matthews on the back. He then gave a punch to the shoulder of forward Vincent Trocheck after he made a gutsy play along the boards to get the puck out of the zone in the third period.

The end result was the Americans winning and booking a ticket for the final.

“It’s really surreal,” Guentzel said. “It’s unbelievable. You can’t put into words what this really means to USA hockey for us to come in here and get some wins.”

Earlier in the day, Finland beat Sweden, 4-3, in overtime. Flyers goalie Sam Ersson did not play. ... Flyers forward Travis Konecny was a healthy scratch for Canada. ... Coach Mike Sullivan said postgame that Matthew Tkachuk is out with a lower-body injury and was being evaluated. “We’ll make decisions that we think is best for Matthew and we think is best for our team.” Tkachuk did not play the last 12 minutes, 36 seconds of the game. ... Sanheim played 15:14 alongside Devon Toews and had one shot on goal. “Obviously a dream of mine, so a lot of emotions early with how the game started,” he said. “Thought I settled into the game, and I just tried to give them a solid game and thought I made some plays. I got up the ice when I had some chances. ... Unfortunately we just couldn’t get the bounces our way, but I thought we had some looks and they capitalized on theirs.”