The puck dropped Saturday night in Montreal. Matt Tkachuk dropped his gloves.
His brother, Brady Tkachuk, fought a Canadian challenger seconds later.
When play resumed, USA’s J.T. Miller challenged the biggest Canuck on the ice to a brawl.
Three fights. Nine seconds. Team USA set the tone on foreign ice.
More than 21,000 fight fans packed inside the Bell Centre watched as a great hockey game slowly appeared.
In what had to be the most glorious night for USA hockey since the Miracle on Ice Olympic game in Lake Placid nearly 45 years ago to the day, the Americans played an almost flawless game in beating Canada, 3-1.
The game Saturday night didn’t need a miracle on ice like we saw in 1980.
All it needed was two teams full of hockey players battling for the name on the front of the jersey, rather than the name on the back.
It was exactly the kind of game the National Hockey League envisioned when it helped launch the 4 Nations Face-Off mid-season tournament for 2025, an event that also includes Sweden and Finland.
On a night the NBA All-Stars fired up triples and threw down dunks in meaningless exhibitions, the best American and Canadian hockey players fired up forechecks and slapshots with passion.
Hockey kicked basketball’s butt Saturday night nearly as fast as Brady Tkachuk dropped Sam Bennett, who is a Florida Panthers teammate with his brother.
The NBA has declined to the point even Golden State star Draymond Green has become critical of the product.
“It’s just who can run faster, who can hit more threes, it’s no substance. I think it’s very boring,” Green said Saturday.
Hockey had no such problem before a TV audience that tuned in from Florida to Edmonton.
Some speculated the American players were angry after some Canadian fans booed the U.S. national anthem before the game. That may be so.
An American president who threatens tariffs and speaks of welcoming Canada as a 51st state will fire up a Canuck fanbase.
But that’s not why the Tkachuk brothers and Miller were quick to throw punches. And they had willing opponents on the Canadian side who didn’t shrink from the challenge.
It takes two to tango, even on ice.
This was simply a brotherly rivalry that had festered too long in a sport Canada has dominated since the first indoor hockey game was played in Montreal in 1875.
“Matthew said he wanted a piece of (Brandon Hagel) and then I coordinated with Benny. Now it’s over and done with. Let’s go win the game,” Brady Tkachuk said in an interview after the first period.
This was a plan, led by the brothers whose father, Keith Tkachuk, racked up more than 1,500 penalty minutes during his own storied NHL career.
Dad had a famous international brawl of his own when he fought legendary Claude Lemieux in a USA-Canada game at the 1996 World Cup.
“There was a little discussion going on during the day. There was a group chat,” Brady Tkachuk.
It’s been nearly 10 years since Team USA and Canada battled in a “best-on-best” format at the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. The United States had not beaten Canada in such a game in almost 15 years.
No, on Hockey Night in Canada, little brother came to fight — and play. What should not be lost was the great hockey game that followed Fight Night.
“We needed to send a message,” said Matthew Tkachuk. “The message we wanted to send is ‘It’s our time.’
“We felt in this environment, on this stage in the tournament, and you’ve got to give those guys credit because they did the exact same thing,” he said.
Anyone offended by the physical start to the game doesn’t follow hockey. More’s the pity.
“That was one of the best experiences of my life — just an unbelievable hockey game,” said Team USA’s Dylan Larkin, who scored the go-ahead goal in the second period.
“The Tkachuk brothers and Millsy, what a start, and credit to those guys for answering the bell. And the crowd, just a great night for our sport and a great night for this rivalry.”
Brady Tkachuk, who plays for the Ottawa Senators in the NHL, was already unpopular in Montreal. He embraced the hate on Saturday night.
“Getting a win here on a Saturday night, that puts us in the finals, that’s a pretty neat feeling,” he said after the game. “I feel like they’re are a lot of unhappy people here, especially in Montreal, a place that isn’t my favorite.”
No, it wasn’t the greatest night in Team USA hockey history.
That will forever be the American college kids who took to the ice in Lake Placid and knocked off the USSR in one of the biggest upsets in the history of sports.
But this was still one helluva game for American hockey.