Canada vs. USA at 4 Nations Face-Off is more than a game [Video]

This is not just a hockey game. When Canada plays the United States at the 4 Nations tournament in Montreal Saturday night, yes, it’ll be a clash — true best-on-best international hockey was shamefully shuttered for over a decade and this tournament, however imperfect, shows what we missed. When American star Matthew Tkachuk says he has been thinking about this game for nine years, it means something.

But Saturday night cannot just be about hockey, because as hard as the sport sometimes fights against the idea, hockey exists in the world. And in the world, American President Donald Trump is hitting Canada with deranged, economy-damaging tariffs and saying he wants to make Canada the 51st state. Most Canadians are fired up about that.