NHL
MONTREAL — It didn’t take long for the mayhem to start.
There were three fights in the first nine seconds of the game between Canada and the United States at the 4 Nations Face-Off on Saturday.
As the puck was dropped for the game’s opening faceoff, Team USA’s Matthew Tkachuk and Team Canada’s Brandon Hagel dropped the gloves. They had a spirited fight, with each player landing big blows, before Hagel dragged Tkachuk to the ice, triggering a thunderous roar from the sellout Bell Centre crowd.
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As Hagel got up off the ice, he took a victory lap and threw his hands in the air, raising the volume in the building even more.
Off the ensuing faceoff, Brady Tkachuk and Sam Bennett dropped the gloves again. One second had ticked off the clock since the first fight.
On the scraps, according to somebody at ice level, Matthew Tkachuk asked Brandon Hagel to fight. After the fight, Brady Tkachuk yelled to Sam Bennett, “We’re going next.” Bennett was on the bench, so he came onto the ice for the faceoff to accept the challenge. And JT Miller was…
— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) February 16, 2025
And then, they played hockey.
For six seconds.
As an American scrum formed around the Canada net, Colton Parayko and J.T. Miller dropped the gloves, the third fight in the first nine seconds. Parayko is listed at 6-foot-6 and 228 pounds. Miller is listed at 6-foot-1 and 218 pounds. It showed.
GO DEEPER
Team USA angered, motivated by boos from Montreal crowd at 4 Nations Face-Off
Canada got a power play out of that last fight as Miller was tagged with an extra two minutes for cross-checking.
And then, they actually played hockey.
USA VS. CANADA. THREE FIGHTS TO START THE GAME 😳
📺 ABC/ESPN+/Disney+ pic.twitter.com/C9VqGzIYA8
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 16, 2025
(Photo of Matthew Tkachuk fighting with Brandon Hagel: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)
Arpon Basu has been the editor-in-chief of The Athletic Montréal since 2017. Previously, he worked for the NHL for six years as managing editor of LNH.com and a contributing writer on NHL.com. Follow Arpon on Twitter @ArponBasu
