Team USA star forward Brady Tkachuk said there is a hatred between the Americans and Team Canada ahead of Sunday’s highly anticipated gold medal match.
Tkachuk, 26, said, for a lot players on the team, the Olympic showdown with Canada will be the biggest game of their careers.
“There’s hatred there,” Tkachuk told ESPN. “I mean, they’ve been the top dog. They’ve been the best for the last bunch of years, and for us, we want to be in that position, be the best. So, it’s going to be a game where I think a lot of guys could say, ‘This is the biggest game that they’ve ever played in.'”
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Team USA defeated Team Canada in the round-robin of the 4 Nations tournament, a game that featured three fights in the first nine seconds, but it did not beat Canada in the finals.
The U.S. lost to Canada in overtime when Edmonton Oilers superstar Connor McDavid scored to dash the Americans’ hopes. Tkachuk said that loss stung and stuck with him.
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“I mean, we were one shot away last year, and sometimes you got to go through that adversity, that sadness, those tough times for the good times to feel even better,” Tkachuk said. “It was definitely a tough couple days, couple weeks, months after that game. And I know I don’t want to feel like that ever again.”
The United States women’s hockey team defeated Canada 2-1 in a thrilling overtime win, and the men are looking to follow suit. The U.S. men have not won a gold medal since the 1980 Olympic Games. However, there were no NHL players in the 2018 or 2022 Games.
One key difference between the 4 Nations tournament and the Olympics is that fighting is prohibited at the Games. But the game will surely be physical.
The gold medal match begins at 8:10 a.m. ET.
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