BOSTON — Players on both sides of this USA-Canada rivalry who will square off in the 4 Nations Face-off final Thursday have agreed on one thing.
This is the biggest game of their lives.
The ever-growing animosity between the two countries as sovereignties has given the rematch some political charge.
The chaotic first nine seconds of their round-robin meeting, when it looked more like the UFC than the NHL, piqued the interest of new fans.
For the players who will actually take the ice in the most high-profile hockey game in a decade and a half, however, it’s only ever been about the colors and the crest on their jerseys.
“Admittedly, I was thinking about this game when I woke up from my nap before the Sweden game [Monday], knowing that [Canada] already clinched their spot and we were going to play them,” Dylan Larkin said after Team USA’s practice at TD Garden on Wednesday. “You get nervous. You get the nervous energy. Each guy has their own way of dealing with that. I’ll try and treat as much as possible like a normal game, even though it’s going to be really hard tonight and tomorrow pregame.”
Larkin and everyone else in the hockey sphere has been thinking about this not only since the tournament began, but for almost a decade, wondering what a gold medal game between this generation’s American and Canadian hockey superstars would look like.
The first glimpse of it Saturday night at Bell Centre in Montreal was so spectacular it has captured the attention of those who otherwise have not given hockey a second look.
This tournament has become something else entirely, and the history between these two nations on the ice is only going to make for the grandest of finales.
The United States has won only one best-on-best tournament, the 1996 World Cup of Hockey, in which they defeated Canada 2-1 in a best-of-three final.
Canada, on the other hand, has won nine of the 13 best-on-best tournaments ever played, including five of the past six, as well as the past three.
“There’s a certain pride that both Canada and the United States have representing their country,” USA head coach Mike Sullivan said. “And what this means to all the players, my observation of watching this tournament with all the four nations, is that these players care an awful lot. They have a lot of pride for the jersey that they’re putting over their heads.
“My feeling from being around this American team is that this group has an awful lot of pride for being an American first and foremost, but also being a part of American hockey, which has developed and grown exponentially over their lifetime. These guys that represent that, these are our very best.
“They feel a certain responsibility to put their best game on the ice. These players are invested and I think because of that, you’re seeing the emotionally charged games that you’re seeing out there.”
The only comparable the players can muster is Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Some feel it’s bigger than that, like USA’s Jack Eichel. Others disagree, like Canada’s Connor McDavid, who lost one just last season to American Matthew Tkachuk and the Panthers.
While it’s obvious this game is not like the others, the only option, the players say, is to treat it like one.
The Canadian roster has certainly had a lot more practice, combining for 20 Stanley Cups compared to the Americans’ three. That no doubt has factored into Team USA’s initiative to prove itself.
While Team Canada was favored coming into the tournament, the only team that was ever going to beat them were the Americans.
“They’re by far the best [U.S. team] that I’ve played,” said Halifax native Brad Marchand, who gets to play in his NHL home arena. “No disrespect to the previous teams, but just the way the game has evolved the last 10 years, some of the players on their team will be some of the best to ever play the game of hockey. They embody a team that competes at the highest level, they have everything.”
For the Americans, this is for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.
This is for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
This is for the next wave of hockey players in the United States, as Tkachuk mentioned Wednesday.
More than anything else, this is for country for both teams.
It always has been.
