When I get a little too wrapped up in the outcome of a sporting event, I like to remind myself that it’s just a game that has no bearing on my everyday life. Regardless of whether my team wins or loses, nothing else in my life changes, so there’s no need to expend any unnecessary energy worrying about the result.
I was having a difficult time reconciling that notion last Thursday night when Canada met the United States in the final of the 4 Nations Face-Off. I knew regardless of the result that I would wake up the next morning and go to work as always, but given the backdrop, it was hard not to think that the game had more riding on it than just hockey supremacy.
And because of that, I couldn’t help but push aside that rule about not taking the game too seriously.
I’ve watched a lot of international hockey over the years and have even been lucky enough to attend a couple of games. I can remember as a young kid going to the old Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver to watch the World Hockey Association stars play the Soviet Union a couple of years after the initial Summit Series.
More recently, I attended a Canada-U.S. hockey game during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. No, it wasn’t the gold medal game that featured Sidney Crosby’s overtime goal, but rather their preliminary round meeting that saw the U.S. prevail by a 5-3 count.
Whether it’s in person or on TV, international hockey has a way of getting the juices flowing, but I can’t recall a game in recent memory having this much on the line, how two hockey teams doing battle on the ice somehow transcended sport.
From Chantal Kreviazuk changing the words to our national anthem in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 51st state comments to the pizza commercial offering a ‘reverse tariff’ special, it was evident all around this wasn’t an ordinary game, that there was more at stake than just a trophy.
Trump’s arrogant musings about our nationhood and his threats of crippling tariffs have understandably stirred something in Canadians, so the thought of Americans ruling hockey was simply too much to bear.
Hockey is our game, so a victory would not only reinforce that to the rest of the world, but it would be an opportunity to stick it to those smug Americans, including Trump, who called the U.S. team to pump up the players before the final.
The game itself was a roller coaster of emotions, from the euphoria of Nathan MacKinnon’s opening goal to watching the Americans storm back to take the lead. I must admit that I was thinking awful thoughts as I watched Brady Tkachuk celebrate the first U.S. goal, but in the end, the good guys prevailed thanks to Connor McDavid’s overtime heroics.
Almost a week later, I now realize that life would have gone on regardless of the outcome, that I got up the next morning as usual. The only difference about last Friday is that I went about my day with a big smile on my face.
