Canada is taking its 4 Nations Face-Off victory lap to a place its U.S. rivals know quite well.
Not long after topping Team USA in overtime on Thursday in a dazzling championship clash, 3-2, Canadian forward and Lightning star Brandon Hagel took to his Instagram Stories and shared a screenshot of the victors’ group chat — a digital element that became a point of contention between the clubs during the tournament.
In Hagel’s post — which featured an oversized Canadian flag emoji — the group chat titled “CHAMPIONS” includes a bevy of contacts that appears to include the initials of Team Canada captain Sidney Crosby, Sam Reinhart, Brad Marchand and Thursday’s game-winning hero Connor McDavid.
Hagel’s revelation comes two days after the Tampa Bay winger shaded Team USA’s Matthew Tkachuk, his brother Brady Tkachuk and J.T. Miller over their intentions to orchestrate a trio of fights across the first nine seconds of Canada’s round-robin tilt last Saturday against the Americans in a group message.
“I think we’re out there playing for the flag, not the cameras. That’s a part of Canada that we have in there. We don’t need to initiate anything. We don’t have any group chats going on,” Hagel, 26, who sparred with Matthew in last weekend’s clash, said Tuesday.
“We’re going out there playing our game and then giving it everything and doing it for our country. We don’t need to initiate everything. We’re just going to play as hard as we can and do it for the flag on the chest.”
Matthew, a 27-year-old forward on the reigning Stanely Cup champion Florida Panthers, offered a curious response to Hagel’s comments Wednesday.
“Maybe their team doesn’t like each other then if they don’t have group chats,” he said. “… Our team does not care about anything that they say.”
The Canadians certainly made a statement Thursday when Oilers superstar McDavid sealed the overtime victory in the inaugural tournament at TD Garden in Boston.
Brady, the Senators captain, said this loss will be on his mind for the foreseeable future.
“I know, for myself personally, that’s going to be on my mind for the next year,” the 25-year-old said. “Back in Ottawa, it’s all about team success there. It’s hard when you’re playing here. It’s hard to think about in year’s time what we want to accomplish.”
With the 2026 Winter Olympics looming, perhaps there will be plenty of strategizing between both squads in their respective chats.