Canada's Brandon Hagel, left, and United States winger Matthew Tkachuk fight during the 4 Nations Face-Off in Montreal last year.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
High-stakes hockey between Canada and the United States can be a bit chaotic. Just ask Brandon Hagel.
During the now-famous first nine seconds of Canada’s initial meeting with the U.S. at last year’s 4 Nations Face-Off, where three fights broke out before any actual hockey was played, it was Hagel who found himself in the eye of the storm.
When U.S. forward Matthew Tkachuk, playing the heel, dictated he wanted the game in Montreal to start with a punch-up, Hagel knew there was no choice but to oblige – for the country.
“I’m sure he had a plan in his head, but I didn’t,” Hagel said in an interview before the Olympics, recounting the melee. “But I did what I had to do.”
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Hagel’s bout – which his Tampa Bay Lightning teammate Anthony Cirelli proudly points out “he won” – was followed by two other scraps before the game was even 10 seconds old.
“It was like nothing I’ve ever experienced before,” said Hagel, a power forward who doesn’t consider himself to be a fighter.
He doesn’t expect a repeat of those nine seconds on Sunday, as Canada prepares to face the United States in the gold-medal final at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
International hockey has harsher penalties for fisticuffs than the NHL, with ejections and suspensions. But when these two countries meet on the ice, there’s a decent chance something memorable will happen.
There will be fireworks. It’s just uncertain what kind.
It could be an offensive explosion. Or the game could be a defensive gem, as it was in Sochi 2014 when Canada suffocated the U.S. to win 1-0 in the semi-final. Or it could be an overtime epic, like the 2010 final in Vancouver, where Sidney Crosby scored the golden goal to win the tournament.
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Judging how the U.S. played Germany in Milan, with brothers Matthew and Brady Tkachuk targeting German superstar Leon Draisaitl all game, this gold-medal final promises to be an intensely physical affair, even if gloves aren’t dropped.
Whatever happens, Hagel doesn’t mind.
He knows the importance of the moment. His role in the U.S. game at the 4 Nations tournament now lives in Canadian hockey lore. When he went home in the summer, it’s what people wanted to talk about.
“I’m from Edmonton, so going back there, I think you get recognized a little bit more, just because of what happened,” he said.
“Obviously, I know it’s going to be talked about forever.”
Team Canada head coach Jon Cooper, also Hagel’s coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning, said the game has left a legacy.
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“I told Hags, if you pay for a drink in Canada in the next 10 years, I’ll be really disappointed,” Cooper said before the Olympics.
“It meant something way beyond hockey.”
The 4 Nations tournament came at a time when Donald Trump’s rhetoric about making Canada the 51st state and his threats of tariffs were at their height.
“We were definitely playing for Canada,” said Brayden Point, Hagel’s teammate at the 4 Nations and in Tampa, who was forced to miss the Olympics because of an injury.
“I mean, Canada is so proud of their hockey and it’s something that we take very seriously,” Point said this fall.
“So to get the win, I think that was bigger than just our team winning. It was a win for Canada.”
Sunday’s rematch with the Americans will have that same atmosphere. The Tkachuks have said openly they want the gold medal. Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon have said the same for Canada.
With fights less likely at the Olympics, it probably means Hagel won’t have to fight the Tkachuks.
Cooper sees it differently.
“I say it the other way,” Cooper said. “They’re not going to have to fight Hagel.”