GAME NIGHT LIVE: Connor McDavid scores OT winner! Canada trumps USA
Live updates as Canada faces the United States in best-on-best hockey showdown
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Team Canada stood on guard for thee on Thursday night.
That sigh of relief you heard just after 11 p.m.came from across this hockey-crazed country after Team Canada scored a dramatic 3-2 overtime victory to win the inaugural 4 Nations Face-Off over Team USA.
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GAME NIGHT LIVE: Connor McDavid scores OT winner! Canada trumps USA Back to video
Connor McDavid, the best player in the world, played the role of hero by firing home the winner at 8:18 of OT to secure the title for Canada.
Sam Bennett and Nathan MacKinnon both scored in regulation for Canada.
-Bruce Garrioch
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Gretzky as honorary captain makes for some debate
The Great One serving as Team Canada’s honorary captain made for some great debate on Thursday night.
Wayne Gretzky’s on-ice appearance at TD Garden in Boston during the pre-game ceremony for the Canada-U.S. final at the 4 Nations Face-Off was trending on social media.
The NHL’s all-time scoring leader’s accolades have never been in question. His political affiliations, however, have been a hot-button issue in some corners.
Gretzky received a mix of cheers and boos inside the arena.
No. 99 has made several public appearances alongside U.S. President Donald Trump.
“The neighbourhood pub I am in just booed Gretzky. What a world we live in,” one Canadian commenter said on social-media site X.
“Americans so unsure about whether to boo Gretzky bc he’s Canadian or cheer him because he’s Trumpy,” said another user.
“No Canadian will be spared,” said one other user.
Yet another poster suggested Canada should have invited Hayley Wickenheiser to be the team’s honorary captain.
Trump has pushed the idea of making Canada the 51st state in the U.S. Gretzky’s wife, Paulina, has supported the concept. Trump has likewise suggested Gretzky would be a good fit to replace Justin Trudeau as prime minister.
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” she shared, quoting one of Gretzky’s most famous statements, while reposting Trump on her Instagram Stories.
Gretzky and some of his family appeared at Trump’s victory party after he was re-elected as America’s 47th president.
-Ian Shantz
Josh Morrissey out for Canada, Thomas Harley in
There was a late curve ball Thursday night for coach Jon Cooper and the Team Canada lineup when Josh Morrissey, the very effective defenceman from the Winnipeg Jets, could not start against the Americans.
“He woke up not feeling well. The flu big has hit every team,” noted Canadian general manager Don Sweeney.
Thomas Harley, with one game under his belt in the Four Nations Face-Off, was plugged in. The Dallas Stars’ youngster took Shea Theodore’s spot against Sweden in the round robin when Cale Makar also came down with a likely flu virus, playing 18:17.
Sweeney said he had full confidence in green-lighting Harley, given assistant Peter DeBoer is his regular Dallas coach and knows his strengths. Harley, 23, is American-born in Syracuse, N.Y., but both parents are from Edmonton.
-Lance Hornby
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Maple Leafs geared up for Canada-U.S. clash
Canada will win 3-2.
That’s the prediction from Maple Leafs coach Craig Berube for the final score in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game on Thursday night in Boston.
One way or the other, Berube figured it’s going to be a close game between Canada and the United States. Perhaps.
“I’m sure it’s going to be a tight game,” Berube said on Thursday after the Leafs held an optional practice at the Ford Performance Centre. “You think it would be anyhow, but you never know.
“Everybody thought the Super Bowl was going to be tight (and it was not, as Philadelphia beat Kansas City 40-22). It’s why we have to play the games.”
The subplot, of course, for Leafs Nation is the matchup involving Leafs captain Auston Matthews and his usual right winger, Mitch Marner. Neither has anything close on his National Hockey League resume (sorry for the reminder) as the title game.
One will come home floating, we presume. The other, you would think, will use the loss as some sort of motivation for the Leafs’ last 27 games of the 2024-25 regular-season schedule.
Will it be weird for the Leafs to see Matthews, the captain of the U.S., and Marner go head-to-head?
“Not really,” defenceman Chris Tanev said. “I don’t think so. I think they’re probably excited about it, to be honest. It’ll be a good test for for both teams.”
-Terry Koshan
‘National emergency’ if Canada loses to U.S. in 4 Nations final, says ex-NHLer
Former NHLer-turned-analyst Paul Bissonnette has been known to dial up the rhetoric on occasion, but it wouldn’t be surprising if many Canadians agree with his latest take.
Bissonnette says that it could be a “national emergency” should Team Canada lose Thursday night’s 4 Nations Face-Off championship matchup with Team USA.
Considering all of the tension between the two neighbouring nations, that might not be all too much hyperbole, either.
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‘BizNasty’ made the declaration during an appearance on the Pardon My Take podcast on Wednesday when he was asked if it would be “a crisis” if the Americans win the final.
“When the U.S. wins on Thursday, is it going to be like crisis in Canada? Like, ‘Oh my God, we’ve got nothing,’” Barstool Sports host Dan Katz asked Bissonnette.
“It would be safe to say, ‘Yes,’ it would be a national emergency if we lose that game on Thursday,” Bissonnette replied.
The six-year NHL veteran also detailed what sort of hand-wringing would come up should Team Canada fall short at TD Garden in Boston.
“For a week straight everybody’s going to argue about the lineup decisions, there would be conversations about blowing up Hockey Canada and restructuring the whole thing. There will be dialogue about how youth hockey is far too expensive, how much it is to rent ice, how much it is to buy equipment, about how the common man has been weeded out,” Bissonnette said.
-Dan Bilicki
President Donald Trump speaks with Team USA before 4 Nations final against Canada
Team USA received a call from the Commander in Chief on Thursday morning.
President Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social account on Thursday morning that he plans to give members of the United States hockey team a call before it faces off against Team Canada.
USA Hockey posted a picture on its social media account X on Thursday morning of the group listening to a call from Trump before holding an optional morning skate. He told the players to “enjoy the journey.”
Trump also noted that someday he is hopeful that the two foes will be teammates because he hasn’t let up on a continued campaign to try to get Canada to join the United States.
“I’ll be calling our GREAT American Hockey Team this morning to spur them on towards victory tonight against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished, and very important, Fifty First State,” Trump wrote.
He added that he will be meeting with governors of the United States in Washington, which is why he won’t be attending the game, but invited Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — who Trump mockingly called “Governor Trudeau” to join the discussions.
“I will be speaking before the Governors tonight in D.C., and will sadly, therefore, (will) be unable to attend. But we will all be watching, and if Governor Trudeau would like to join us, he would be most welcome,” Trump added. “Good luck to everybody, and have a GREAT game tonight. So exciting!”
The American players appreciated the call from Trump. The team listened to the call on Guerin’s cellphone with the speaker function turned on.
“It was so awesome to get his support,” said Rangers forward J.T. Miller following the morning skate. “It’s a pretty big deal for him to take time out of his schedule to talk to us for five minutes.
“It’s just another one of those things where we’re kind of pinching ourselves this tournament.”
The players were pleased Trump had a word with them.
“It was pretty wild,” forward Brock Nelson said. “It’s an honour for everybody here to represent the country and get a call from the President. It was pretty special to everybody in this locker room that he took time out of his day.
“It also goes to show that it’s not just a big game for hockey, it goes beyond the game. It was something I will remember.”
-Bruce Garrioch
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