American fans lightly boo ‘O Canada’ before 4 Nations Face-Off title game
The White House poked fun at Canada ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off final hockey game in Boston Thursday evening, saying it looks forward to the U.S. “beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada.” Trump called the team earlier to wish the players good luck.
BOSTON (AP) — While the American fans lightly booed “O Canada” on Thursday night at the 4 Nations Face-Off hockey tournament, the Canadian singer ad libbed new lyrics as a response to President Donald Trump’s chatter about turning the country into the 51st U.S. state.
A smattering of jeers for “O Canada” were eventually drowned out by the fans singing along with Chantal Kreviazuk, who changed the first verse from “true patriot love, in all of us command,” to “in true patriot love that none but us command.”
Midway through Canada’s 3-2 overtime victory, Kreviazuk told the AP she did it “because I believe in democracy, and a sovereign nation should not have to be defending itself against tyranny and fascism.”
The Canadian chart-topper posted a picture on Instagram of the phrase “that only us command” written on her left hand with emojis of a Canadian flag and a flexed muscle.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” followed, with the sellout TD Garden crowd at full volume in an anthem battle that became the undercard for one of the most anticipated hockey games in decades. It ended with Connor McDavid scoring at 8:18 of overtime.
Olympic hockey hero Mike Eruzione was greeted with “U-S-A! U-S-A!” chants when he took the ice during the pregame ceremony wearing a jersey of American star Jonny Gaudreau, who died in a bicycle accident last summer. The honorary U.S. captain shook hands with his Canadian counterpart, Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky, in a sign of sportsmanship players and fans hoped would carry over to the game.
Among those taking an interest was Trump, who called the U.S. team in the morning to wish players good luck. USA Hockey posted a photo on social media showing general manager Bill Guerin standing in the middle of the locker room holding up a phone.
“It was so awesome to get his support,” U.S. center J.T. Miller said. “It’s a pretty big deal for him to take time out of his schedule to talk to us for five minutes. It’s just another one of those things where we’re kind of pinching ourselves this tournament.”
After Canada won, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted on social media, “You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game.
The rivalry between the North American hockey powers — already enough to get the attention of players and fans — has intensified after Trump threatened a tariff war and expressed a wish to make Canada the 51st U.S. state.
Trump posted on Truth Social on Thursday that he would be watching, and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the president would be “watching for the United States to win.”
“And we look forward to the United States beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada,” she said.
In a post that referred to Trudeau as “Governor Trudeau,” Trump invited the country to join the union. Trudeau has said that will never happen, and Canadian Public Safety Minister David McGuinty said during a news conference in Vancouver: “Sounds like President Trump is worried about the outcome of the hockey game tonight.”
“Canada is a sovereign and independent country. It has been for over 150 years and will remain so,” McGuinty said. “This discussion of 51st state is a non-starter.”
Guerin said on Fox News earlier this week the U.S. team would welcome Trump at the final. Trump had a prior commitment, speaking at the Republican Governors Association Meeting in Washington.
In spite of the political drama — or perhaps because of it — the tournament that returned NHL stars to international play after missing the last two Winter Olympics has delivered hockey of a quality that has conjured memories of some of the iconic games in history, including the American “Miracle on Ice” victory over the Soviet Union in the middle of the Cold War.
The Montreal fans loudly booed “The Star-Spangled Banner” last week during the round robin stage, when the North Americans had three fights in the first nine seconds in a game the U.S. won 3-1. The American fans responded — though less volubly — when the tournament shifted to Boston on Monday, as both sides have tried to lower the geopolitical temperature and focus on hockey.
USA and Canada sweaters intermingled with the usual Boston Bruins jerseys in the building lobby in the hours before the game as fans fist-bumped their countrymen while waiting in line for souvenirs or get into the arena.
Outside the stadium, a fan held up a sign saying “Welcome to the U.S.A. Canada’s 11th Province.” But most fans in Boston said they hoped the anthem booing and other bad feelings would not recur.
“I think everyone’s really here to watch the hockey game and I hope that’s really everyone’s motive,” said John Bennett, a Bruins fan from nearby Wakefield, Massachusetts, who was wearing a replica Eruzione jersey from the 1980 Olympics. “Because, at the end of the day, it is just a hockey game.”
Jason Brown, who was wearing a replica Wayne Gretzky Canada jersey and a Canadian flag as a cape, drove down from Victoriaville, halfway between Montreal and Quebec City, with his friends; one had an open Labatt beer handy as he tried to start a “Let’s go, Canada!” chant in the train station.
Asked about the politics, he said, “We don’t care about that. It’s all about hockey.”
White House reporter Darlene Superville and AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno in Washington and AP freelancer Jim Morris in Vancouver, British Columbia, contributed to this report.
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/NHL
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
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As Chantal Kreviazuk sang “O Canada” before the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game between the U.S. and Canada, some listeners heard what sounded like a mistake.
Rather than sing “True patriot love in all of us command,” Kreviazuk changed it to “that only us command.”
Some assumed it was an embarrassing error on the Canadian artist’s part, but her representative confirmed to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation that it was in fact intended as a response against recent rhetoric from the U.S. government about taking Canada’s sovereignty.
Kreviazuk also posted a picture of the modified lyric on her hand to her Instagram Story.
Kreviazuk performed amid loud boos from the crowd in Boston, a clear response to Canadian fans jeering the U.S. national anthem over recent statements and actions from President Donald Trump. Since taking office last month, Trump has made repeated comments about turning Canada into the 51st state of the U.S. and has also threatened to hit the country with significant tariffs.
Many of Trump’s allies have made similar comments, some serious and some not. Sen. Ted Cruz — who was born in Calgary — posted a joking message that the U.S. would get to take over Canada if it won Thursday.
Canada has not taken any of that well, and the result has been a hostile response to “The Star-Spangled Banner” any time it’s played in a Canadian NHL arena.
The matter has taken hold of the country’s national pride so much that it elevated the meaning of the 4 Nations Face-Off for many, and the resulting games between the U.S. and Canada were played like an Olympic gold medal match.
After losing to the U.S. in group play, Canada came back around and defeated the Americans 3-2 in overtime, with superstar Connor McDavid scoring the golden goal. Not long after puck hit net, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posted a statement clearly aimed at the United States.
The Canadian team proceeded to celebrate the win with another performance of “O Canada,” and there weren’t so many boos this time. Just singing along.
The NHL wasn’t planning for rising political tensions in the background of the 4 Nations Face-Off, but they helped juice interest in a tournament that has looked more and more like a good idea as each game has been played. As every major American sports league has struggled to maintain interest in its All-Star game, from both fans and players, the NHL replaced its usual All-Star break with a miniature international tournament, and the result was some great hockey.
It’s unclear when or if we’ll ever see another 4 Nations Face-Off, but every player seemed to buy into the event. Next up: the 2026 Winter Olympics.
President Donald Trump has spoke repeatedly about turning Canada into the 51st state
From the boardroom to the ice: Inside the mad scramble that brought 4 Nations to life
BOSTON — Leave it to a couple of hockey’s biggest power brokers to spread the credit around and take none for themselves on the birth of the best idea the sport has seen in decades.
We shouldn’t have expected any differently when speaking with NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly and NHLPA director of international growth and strategy Rob Zepp about the 4 Nations Face-Off just hours before its grand finale at TD Garden. They’re hockey lifers, born and raised in a sport that frowns on self-aggrandizing behaviour.
Still, what we learned from them was that this tournament was conceived in boardroom meetings 18 months ago, with tight timelines and extraordinary obstacles to bring best-on-best competition back for the first time since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.
“We were trying to plan and execute a World Cup of Hockey and we were focused on eight teams, and that would’ve been national teams as opposed to mixed teams, and then a whole host of things prevented us from doing that,” Daly said.
“Originally, it was going to be in February of 2024. We had resistance from the IIHF, we had resistance from the European leagues, some clubs, and we were trying to work through that resistance. The resistance was understandable because we were working on a very short timeline. … We went through the period where we were supposed to be in the Beijing Olympics, but Covid was still in the world and it forced us to miss that. And Russia invaded the Ukraine, so all of a sudden Russia became a non-possibility, so we had to shift on the fly to what can we do, and we really wanted to do something.
“We needed to plan a tournament that we had total control over, where all the players in it were NHL players. The only way we could’ve constructed that tournament was by going with these four teams, because otherwise we’re dealing with players that might not be playing in the NHL. So it became a logical conclusion.”
Fierce rivals Canada and the U.S. collide in Boston on Thursday for the 4 Nations Face-Off final. Full coverage begins on on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ at 7 p.m. ET/ 4 p.m. PT.
Another decision that fell into place, according to both Daly and Zepp, was to have it play out in Montreal and Boston.
Without enough time to accept formal bids from prospective markets, like they will for the 2028 World Cup of Hockey, these locations were thought to be perfect for the 4 Nations Face-Off.
“We knew we wanted to host in multiple cities, preferably to bring this action both north and south of the border,” Zepp said. “(Montreal and Boston) are two incredibly iconic hockey cities, they’re sports cities with passionate fanbases, they’re attractive destinations for people who would want to come in and witness these games in person. … Given their close proximity to one another, they checked a whole bunch of different boxes for us.”
What followed was a perfect storm: a display of unparalleled skill shook up through the snow-globe environments in which the game was meant to be played.
We don’t know if NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, Daly, David Proper (senior executive vice president of media and international strategy), Lynn White (SVP of international strategy), and NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh, assistant executive director Ron Hainsey, Zepp and Michelle Stajan-Strike (senior manager of international strategy and operations) — the people who conceived of this event —see it as the greatest marketing of the game in its history, but every participant with whom we’ve spoken, in one capacity or another, has called it exactly that.
Former GMs Ken Holland and Jarmo Kekalainen, former NHL and international superstars like Mark Messier, current coaches Jon Cooper and Mike Sullivan, and players Brad Marchand and Noah Hanifin have all suggested that this event has surpassed their incredibly high expectations and put hockey on the global radar in an unprecedented way.
“It’s almost overwhelming, in a sense, to see not only the reaction from the hockey community, but we know the big benefit and the power of hosting these competitions is the ability to attract a wider audience and cast a wider net,” added the 43-year-old Zepp, who appeared in 10 NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers to end a career of goaltending in Germany and Finland.
“To see hockey being talked about across all sorts of major channels, with athletes and pop culture, it’s something in my time that I haven’t seen, and to be in that position now is incredibly profound. … I know all of us who are really close to this sport, who have played it — no matter what the level — can speak to how amazing the game is and how much we love it, but to see that spilling over into broader community and fan groups is super exciting. It’s hard to put into words to be honest.”
Daly is 60 years old. He started watching hockey at in 1971 and became hooked on it a year later during the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the former Soviet Union. He’s been with the NHL for 28 years and has overseen and witnessed so many moments of growth for the sport.
But this one has been different.
“I think a lot of times we feel in our sport that we don’t get the attention that our game deserves,” Daly said. “We strongly feel it’s the best game in all of sports and sometimes we lack the attention that that should generate, and what’s been great about this is it’s really caught the imagination of not only hockey fans around the world and in both countries but non-hockey fans. I think what we saw on Saturday night is hockey can translate beyond the pure fans or those who are just casually interested or who just love sport and love pure sport. Obviously want to maintain that.”
The NHL and NHLPA have virtually guaranteed it, with a return to the Winter Olympics in 2026 and the rebirth of the World Cup of Hockey securing best-on-best competition every two years.
The impact these games have had likely goes well beyond the numbers, even if the data offers some tangible measure of it. Consider that at least 1.5 million of Finland’s 5.5 million people watched Sweden and Finland square off last Saturday.
“And we’re talking about a mid-season international tournament that does it,” said Daly.
It’s a tournament being played for medals, cash prizes and a trophy no one has ever won before or will ever win again.
But that hasn’t stopped players from playing like their lives are on the line.
“Being Canadian, I live and die by playing hockey, watching hockey, representing my country, watching my country play hockey,” said forward Mark Stone.
His teammates — and the competition — has treated it that way, giving us something that’s gone beyond what we’ve been pining for over the last eight-and-a-half years.
“These best-on-best tournaments I think bring out the best of the best,” said Sullivan. “The commitment, the investment that all of these teams have displayed every night, in my mind, has been an unbelievable celebration of hockey. Just from a hockey purist or a hockey fan in general, it’s hard not to get excited about what we’re witnessing. I would envision tonight would be the pinnacle of that, with Team USA and Canada competing for the championship. Both teams are terrific teams, there’s no weaknesses on either side, and it means an awful lot to both sides.
“These are the very best players in the game. These are the savants that when they bring their creativity and their brilliance to what they do out there, that’s how the game evolves. That’s what we’re seeing, that’s what we’re witnessing first-hand. …It’s been competitive, it’s been emotional, it’s all of the things we hope for in sports, and that’s why we love it.”
Cooper said these games are getting the attention around the globe they “richly deserve.”
They were put on by two traditionally opposed factions that have come together for the betterment of the sport.
Perhaps no image better captured that than the one we saw before the first game in Montreal: at the 2028 World Cup announcement, where Bettman wrapped his arm around Walsh as the latter talked about the NHL and NHLPA not having much to disagree about in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. Barring completely unforeseen circumstances, according to both parties, the CBA could potentially be signed and ratified well before the current one expires in September 2026.
Their teams, led by Daly, Hainsey, Zepp, Proper, White and Stajan-Strike, initialized and spearheaded the sport’s most important initiative in recent memory.
“I think the cooperation between the NHL and NHLPA is much better and easier and more comfortable than it was in 2016,” said Daly. “We’ve been in lockstep and perfectly aligned from Day 1 of agreeing to do this and through the execution. I’m not even sure I could come up with a single example of where we had a significant disagreement. It’s been a really good collaboration.”
It paved the way for the players to come here and do what they do best, and the players have delivered.
They feel they’ve been a part of something that’s forever changed hockey.
Even ahead of the championship game, which has potential to be better than any game we’ve seen at this event and any that’s come before it, Hanifin said the sport has won most here.
“It’s almost bigger than the final itself now,” the U.S. defenceman started. “You have so many people just watching and supporting hockey, and it’s opened so many eyes to the game. I think this just the best thing that’s happened for the game in quite a long time. It’s a great opportunity for us as players to be a part of it.”
It’s the first page in a new, exhilarating chapter of international hockey, and it’s got everyone eager to get to the next one.
“You could never script it, and who knows how it would’ve played out if one or two of the games had gone in different directions,” said Daly. “But luckily for us they didn’t, and we find ourselves where (we) find ourselves and hopefully it’s going to be a great night of hockey.”
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