The expectation for Saturday’s 4 Nations Face-off recreation between the USA and Canada was that feelings could be excessive.
These expectations weren’t solely met, they had been exceeded. It didn’t take a lot time for the depth to achieve a boiling level.
USA ahead Matthew Tkachuk ( Florida Panthers) and Canada ahead Brandon Hagel (Tampa Bay Lightning) dropped the gloves proper off the opening face-off and began throwing haymakers at one another to get the sport rolling.
It didn’t finish there.
Off the very subsequent face-off, Canada’s Sam Bennett (Florida Panthers) fought the opposite Tkachuk, Brady Tkachuk (Ottawa Senators) to essentially kick off chaos.
It by some means didn’t finish there, as a result of simply six seconds later USA’s J.T. Miller ( New York Rangers) fought Canada’s Colton Parayko (St. Louis Blues) following a scrum across the Canadian internet.
Whereas this recreation was at all times anticipated to be intense, there isn’t a means anyone might have seen a begin like that occuring.
Not solely has preventing been steadily declining within the NHL over the previous couple of many years, however fights in worldwide tournaments are just about exceptional. If this had been an precise IIHF recreation (and never an NHL creation) each participant that fought would have been ejected, as per IIHF guidelines.
These best-on-best groups are additionally usually made up of essentially the most proficient gamers on the planet who will not be normally identified to combat.
Clearly, none of that mattered on this recreation.
The Tkachuk brothers, in addition to the presence of Bennett and Brad Marchand (Boston Bruins) on the Canada roster, undoubtedly deliver some grit and sandpaper to this match. All of it resulted in fireworks to begin Saturday’s recreation.
