If you enjoyed the unexpected intrigue of the 4 Nations Face-Off hockey tournament this month, get ready for a double dose of more international sports drama next year.
With the Winter Olympics in Italy and the World Cup soccer tournament ending in the United States, the overlap of global sports and politics in 2026 could be exciting — and maybe dangerous.
We got a glimpse of what could come when Canada won the hockey tournament on Thursday with a 3-2, sudden-death overtime victory over the United States. Despite the belligerence of the Americans, the winning goal was scored by Connor McDavid of Richmond Hill, Ontario, and the Edmonton Oilers.
The games — held first in Montreal, then in Boston — turned into that rare occasion in modern sports: An event that proved far greater than its hype, a combination of high-level athleticism and gut-level patriotism that stirred the tribal passions of the two North American nations.
You knew it in the preliminary-round game between Canada and the U.S. in Montreal when the “Star-Spangled Banner” was bilingually booed. Moments later, the American Tkachuk brothers — Matthew and Brady — picked unprovoked fist fights in the first few seconds with Canadian foes.
The brawling looked like a scene with the Hanson Brothers from Slap Shot, a hockey film from the 1970s about minor-league hockey during the Stanley Cup era of the Philadelphia Flyers, then known as the Broad Street Bullies.
Joining the Tkachuks in both the pre-planning and the punching was teammate J.T. Miller. Perhaps inspired by fisticuffs, the Americans won a 3-1 victory that drew the attention of President Donald Trump, who sparked animosity by taunting Canada about tariffs and maybe even a hostile takeover.
On the day of the final in Boston, Trump tried to pump up the Yank troops with a pep talk on a speaker phone in their dressing room. His press spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, said “We look forward to the United States beating our soon-to-be 51st State.”
That night, right before faceoff in the TD Garden, there came another anthem incident. First, Boston fans booed “O Canada.” Next, singer Chantel Kreviazuk of Winnipeg changed a line in the Canadian national anthem from “in all of us command” to “that only us command.”
In an interview with The Canadian Press, she said she changed the lyrics in response to Trump’s bullying of Canada.
“I was singing for our pride, for our honour, our sovereignty, our history — the good and the bad — and the future,” Kreviazuk said. She is a Canadian of Ukrainian, Scottish, and First Nation Cree descent. Her nationalism and patriotism reveal subtle cultural differences between the two nations.
While the U.S. established itself with a war of revolution against England, Canada remained part of the British Empire and only gradually drew away, peacefully. Some of its original citizens were former Americans who remained loyal to the crown.
Now that Trump has portrayed himself as a kind of king, he projects imperial aims that threaten our two centuries of harmony with our closest neighbor by threatening to absorb it. Those of us who grew up in border towns like Detroit cringe at this destructive impulse, despite the edge it gives to hockey.
How might Trump’s jingoism or other international events play out in the Winter Games and World Cup soccer on a bigger stage with multiple nations involved? History gives hints. In 1936, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany hosted the Olympics and put a shiny, positive spin for global visitors on a totalitarian regime.
In 1968 in Mexico City, Tommie Smith and John Carlos of the United States raised the clenched fists of Black Power on the medal stand. This came less than two weeks after hundreds of protesting students were massacred in the streets by government troops.
In 1972, at the Summer Games in Munich, Palestinian terrorists attacked Israelis in the Olympic Village and murdered 11 of them. In the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, a bomb in a nearby park killed one person and injured 100.
But international sports strife is not always violent. In 1980, the United States boycotted the Summer Games in Moscow after the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. That led to a reciprocal Soviet boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics by the Soviets and 14 of their allies in 1984.
The first boycott came mere months after the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980, when the U.S. defeated the Soviets and later won the Olympic gold medal at Lake Placid. That victory blended hockey and patriotism as never before in the U.S. It came only eight years after Canada defeated the Soviet Union in the Summit Series of 1972.
Although Canada prevailed in that two-team showdown back in ’72, the level of Russian talent stunned a North American hockey world that had assumed Canadian superiority. Now, less than half of the NHL players are from Canada, but its citizens still revere hockey in a way no team sport grips the U.S.
For years, the Soviets played the big, bad bear in international sports. This time around, Russia is banned from Olympic hockey, although that could change. For World Cup soccer, Russia is out because it invaded Ukraine.
In that they no longer can wear the black hat in global sports, who might now? Perhaps it’s Uncle Sam, especially in light of how Trump is scrambling international alliances by abandoning allies and making nice with rivals.
Although the U.S. is hosting the prime matches of World Cup’s conclusion, some games will be in Canada and Mexico. In that Trump also has been bullying Mexico, you can add Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara to Vancouver and Toronto as cities where anti-American sentiment might be expressed.
Or maybe changes in the global political winds will gust into demonstrations or protests at the U.S. sites of New York/New Jersey, Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay, Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Boston, Miami, and Seattle.
The 4 Nations hockey tournament replaced the All-Star game this season, promoted next year’s Olympics, and far exceeded expectations. It included Finland and Sweden. All teams were stocked with top National Hockey League talent, although hockey nations like Russia, Czechia, Germany, and Austria weren’t included.
Canada wore red and the U.S. wore blue, prominent colors in their flags. Neither wore the white of truce or surrender. As symbolic national combat, team sports provoke passions that sometimes tip over the top.
Justin Trudeau — Canada’s prime minister called “governor” by Trump — posted “You can’t take our country and you can’t take our game.” In the coming months, let’s cross our fingers and hope that any international animosity starts with the waving of flags and stops with the booing of national anthems.
