Hagel, Canada playing 4 Nations championship game 'for a flag, not the cameras'

BOSTON -- The first verbal shot has been fired heading into the highly anticipated Canada-United States rematch at TD Garden on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ESPN, Disney+, SN, TVAS).

Who better to author it than Canada forward Brandon Hagel, who dropped the gloves with U.S. forward Matthew Tkachuk just two seconds into a 3-1 loss at Bell Centre in Montreal on Saturday?

"We're out there playing for a flag, not the cameras," Hagel said Tuesday. "That's the part of Canada we have in [the dressing room].

"We don't need to initiate anything. We don't need any group chats going on. We're going out there playing our game, giving it everything and, like I said, doing it for our country. We're just going to play as hard as we can and do it for the flag."

Zing.

Hagel's remarks were an obvious dig at U.S. forwards Brady Tkachuk and his brother Matthew, who said they had been in group chats that included teammate J.T. Miller earlier in the day prior to the 4 Nations preliminary round game against Canada. The theme: Let's start the game with chaos.

That's exactly what happened.

Matthew ignited the challenge when he immediately invited Hagel to scrap, which he accepted.

One second later, Brady and Canada forward Sam Bennett did the same.

Six seconds later, Miller and Canada defenseman Colton Parayko had their own bout.

Three fights in the first nine seconds.

After the well-earned U.S. victory, Brady said that it had all been preplanned.

Judging by Hagel's response, the Canadians heard all of that.

And now, it's officially on.

Canada-United States 2.0. The Battle in Beantown. The championship game of a best-on-best tournament that has left blood on both sides boiling in less than two weeks.

Prior to 4 Nations, there was a school of thought that this event might be nothing more than an exhibition series. That, Hagel said, was the furthest thing from what the players were thinking.

"It's funny," he said. "Before the tournament, everyone thought these might be, I don't know, all-star games in this sense. But I mean, I remember thinking to myself [lying] in bed before the game, if this is an all-star type of thing I'm going to be so out of place because I'm putting my head through a wall tomorrow.

"That was my mentality going into the game. And everyone did the same."

Including Bennett.

And now, Canada has a chance at redemption. This time they'll be the enemy, the dastardly bad guys who'll be facing the wrath of what is sure to be an off-the-charts environment courtesy of a pro-United States crowd.

Bring it on, Bennett said.

"I mean, I've definitely been the villain in a lot of buildings before, definitely in this one," he said. "So, ya, I enjoy that role.

"But, ya, I'm sure the atmosphere is going to be just as intense as it was at Bell Centre. I can't wait to see what it's like."

In Game 3 of the 2024 Eastern Conference Second Round between Bennett's Florida Panthers and the Boston Bruins, a controversial hit by Bennett on Brad Marchand in the first period caused the Bruins captain to miss the next two games with an upper-body injury. He immediately became public enemy No. 1 at TD Garden, if he wasn't already.

The Panthers forward did not receive any supplementary discipline on the play, but Marchand later said that Bennett "got away with one."

Florida won the best-of-7 series 4-2 and went on to win the Stanley Cup, finishing off its run with a 2-1 victory against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 7 of the Final. Bennett said going into this showdown against the Americans has a similar vibe.

"It's really close," he said. "I mean, it's the excitement, the anticipation, how badly we want it. It's right up there with the Stanley Cup Final.

"This is important to a lot of people in the country, and it's important to every single guy in our locker room, so we're going to give it our all."

Bennett was asked if the game Thursday could start in a similar fashion to Saturday, mayhem and all.

"I mean, never say never, but I don't anticipate that," he said. "I mean, I think the messages were sent in that last game ….

"This game, it's all about winning. It's not about who's tougher, who can intimidate more. It's about winning. And that's our main goal."

Told of the comments, Canada coach Jon Cooper broke into a wide grin. He's repeatedly said in the past week how much he loves the passion of his players. As such, he was asked what it would mean to him to coach his country to the tournament title.

"How do I say this?" he said, looking for the proper words.

"After the game started (in Montreal), I remember looking at the crowd. I stopped watching what was going on the ice, so if you could envision what was going on in the crowd, that's what I'm feeling right now.

"When you think of it that way, that's what it means to me."

He then excused himself and left the podium, his face etched with emotion.

Press conference over.

Message received.

Canada-USA, Part 2.

Did we mention it's on?