The parallel is striking. When the United States faced Canada in the round robin of the World Cup in 1996, Bill Guerin and Keith Tkachuk each fought in the first 20 seconds at CoreStates Center in Philadelphia. The Americans went on to win the game 5-3 and the tournament.
Guerin is now the U.S. general manager. Keith Tkachuk is the father of Brady and Matthew Tkachuk.
Asked if the brothers could draw from what happened in 1996, Matthew Tkachuk said: “I mean, we could if we wanted to. I haven’t brought it up with Billy. I don’t know.” Turning to his brother, he said, “Have you?” Brady Tkachuk said no.
“I mean, we just watched it with my dad before,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “No real correlation. I get what you guys might think, but it’s just guys that are all fired up to play their biggest rivals in this type of environment. We had an absolute blast from the start.”
The context is striking too. In an emotionally charged atmosphere, the fans booed the Americans during warmup, booed them when they took the ice for the game and booed “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Asked if this was about more than hockey, Matthew Tkachuk said, “Yeah, to us it was.” Then he paused for a second and said, “I mean, I guess I shouldn’t say that.” He said it was more about the rivalry and opportunity.
“To us, this is as big of a game as it gets,” he said. “I mean, this is what you dream about, a chance to knock off Canada in Canada, like I said, on a Saturday night in Montreal, in that type of environment. It was incredible. It was fun to start like that.”
The Americans continued to be physical throughout the game. After center Connor McDavid outskated defenseman Charlie McAvoy and gave Canada a 1-0 lead at 5:31 of the first period, McAvoy sent McDavid flying with a big hit at 9:49.
“That also is a message-sending moment and probably one of the plays of the game,” Matthew Tkachuk said. “They just scored a goal, the building was rocking, and Charlie comes there, and he pops McDavid, one of the hardest hits I’ve seen.”
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