THEY STILL HAVE TO PAY A TARIFF AS THE 51ST STATE, BUT THE CANADIANS WIN ANYWAY
Are we kidding? Auto tariff day is in early April, so until then, Canada celebrates an overtime victory in the 4 Nations Face-Off when Team USA could have won if Auston Matthews converts one time
They kept singing “Dream On” in the locker room, but any miracle notion was replaced by six doses of cold overtime equilibrium. The Americans were almost as good as Canada and sure didn’t need Herb Brooks shouting on TV, far beyond 1980. They would have won Thursday night if Auston Matthews and his mates weren’t stoned in succession by Jordan Binnington.
President Trump’s marauders — ask him — almost buried the northern neighbors who have used hockey to shape mythology. This time, the red, white and blue didn’t have to start three brawls in the opening nine seconds. In front of mesmerized fans in Boston, who paid Super Bowl prices to watch the sport at its highest level, a 3-2 loss happened against a country that still must pay tariffs as the, um, 51st state.
“We had the opportunities. It didn’t happen,” said Matthews, stopped three times by a goalie who was discovered six years ago in St. Louis and won the Stanley Cup. “I'd say it's a pretty even playing field in my opinion. It could have gone either way."
“This is going to give us nice motivation in the future,” said Brady Tkachuk, followed by Zach Werenski, who said, “This group's going to be around a long time together. We expect to win now.”
The world’s best player, Connor McDavid, scored the winner at 8:18 of overtime. “Just to see the reaction. Just to know what it means to us,” he said. “I know it’s just a quick tournament, and it’s not an Olympic gold medal or anything like that, but it means the world to our group, as you can see. I hope the fans love it. It’s a great game, it’s a great sport, and I hope we put on a good show these last couple days and gained some fans, ultimately. You can’t ask for a better show than that.”
It also might awaken Trump about expectations. He rooted for Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl … and lost. He went to the Daytona 500 … and ran the pace lap in a limousine. Then he phoned Team USA and described Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, as “a governor.” In his mind, he motivated the Americans in the electrifying 4 Nations Face-Off, which became the 21st-century version of our dashing rise in the sport. Trudeau waited until the final score to kick back: “You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game.”
Few of us understood the tournament until last weekend, when two Tkachuks and J.T. Miller instantly bombed Canadians with fisticuffs. A 3-1 victory inspired Americans who sensed tariffs and slapshots would take down our allies. When lightning crackled five nights later and sent the game into an extra period, ratings on ESPN might have blasted through the eight-million barrier. This is the first time in ages when hockey is blowing out basketball. Trump will say it’s about annexation. It’s about a game that never has been faster, crisper or more physical.
“It’s a big deal for everybody,” said NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who gave us an experience so much better than a boring All-Star festival. “It’s very gratifying to see how the tournament has played out and how people have reacted to it. There was a fair amount of cynicism going into it as to whether or not this was going to be a meaningful tournament.”
It awakened our nation and suggested hockey shouldn’t be dismissed as an off-night event. For a moment, Tkachuk looked like the hero, serving another sledgehammer — pushes, no punches — and a goal that sent vicious pain through 10 provinces. Not until McDavid punched home the go-home score, on a pass from Mitch Marner, could Canada survive and cheer Binnington. Those folks choose to blame Bettman for a preponderance of U.S. franchises, which have won the last 32 Stanley Cups. A loss to the Americans would have created shrieks, as if unity has been broken.
Canada celebrates. Trump parties, too, with plans to impose auto tariffs of about 25 percent. We live in a dominant America, as he said before the game, calling “our GREAT American Hockey Team to spur them on towards victory against Canada, which with FAR LOWER TAXES AND MUCH STRONGER SECURITY, will someday, maybe soon, become our cherished and important Fifty First State.” He asked Trudeau to join him and watch the game in Washington with other governors.
Then again, Trump also was described by a real U.S. governor, JB Pritzker of Illinois, as a world leader creating a new Nazism. “I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly,” he said, with fear he is watching “with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now.” He added, “All I’m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.”
So did the Americans carry on because of Trump or in spite of him? Let’s say they did it for themselves, instead of focusing on the 51st state. “A little bit, but I would just try to focus on the message that he was giving us,” said Bill Guerin, general manager of Team USA. “I’ve said it before: We’re here to play hockey. This is not a political forum. This is a hockey tournament. And he’s just trying to be supportive in the best way that he could, and we appreciate it.”
How did Trump perform in front of the team? “I think it was awesome,” Guerin said. “Just wanted to wish us luck. Honestly, that was the gist of it. He just wanted to wish us luck. He was saying he has met a bunch of the guys through White House visits and stuff, and, you know, he mentioned a few guys’ names and that his wife wanted to watch the game the other night. It’s not every day you get to talk to the president.”
Said Miller: “It was pretty cool. It was so awesome to get his support. 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. To see the support from everybody up to the president, it’s pretty wild.”
Said defenseman Brock Faber: “It’s the President of the United States. When you’re a kid, you don’t ever think that’s going to be a possibility. It was really cool. He said, ‘Have fun. Enjoy it. Just enjoy the journey and the pride of wearing the red, white and blue.’ It was pretty quick.”
Said winger Matt Boldy: “Obviously, he is a very influential person in the world. It’s special. I think it speaks to how good the tournament’s been for hockey and the exposure that’s been given to a new group of fans.”
Wayne Gretzky appeared on the fancy carpet. Mike Eruzione was with him, a “Miracle On Ice” mainstay to this day. Trump would have fit in, until the final goal, in a week when he has been especially mouthy. Had he lost the presidential election, he would have lived a “very nasty life” in jail. “If I lost, it would have been very bad,” he said. “Nobody was treated like me. Nobody, and I will tell you, you learn a lot about yourself, but there’s nothing I’d rather do.”
He also called himself “The King” for dumping New York’s congestion pricing. Canada didn’t want to hear it. “I don’t,” coach Jon Cooper said. “Other than the fact of the talk of the 51st state, and then somebody saying, ‘Wow, we’d have one hell of a hockey team.’ Let’s be honest. The political side of things, we feel for everybody on our side of things. But I think for us to come here and to be in that room, it’s going to be more for us to win that game.”
“I don’t get caught up in politics,” forward Brad Marchand said. “I don’t think there’s a place in the game for it. This is a place for people to escape that stuff. You go out there and you get to come watch a game and get away from all the stresses everybody has in their day-to-day life.”
This is OUR day-to-day life. The Canadians were exposed. They also won the title.
We’ll see them April 2. That’s auto tariff day.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.