Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Hagel set the tone from the opening puck drop of Saturday’s epic bout between Team USA and Canada on Saturday night.
Both Tkachuk and Hagel dropped the gloves right as the puck hit the frozen sheet at Bell Centre, sparking a wild start where the Americans and Canadians engaged in three fights over the first nine seconds of their 4 Nations Face-off bout.
It’s been four days since Tkachuk and Hagel traded right hooks in front of a raucous Montreal crowd. But both players haven’t relented from firing off salvos at one another since then, with their latest offerings coming as verbal barbs in front of a microphone.