Canada, U.S. game was collision of hockey, politics and national pride

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EDMONTON – The hockey game between Canada and the United States was, at a bare minimum, about national pride.

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Our country. Our game. At a time when Canadians feel distinctly under assault by the trade belligerence of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

Canada’s win, said Tamara Virag, speaking during the first-period intermission, would be a “small, little F you.”

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She got her wish, as Connor McDavid’s overtime goal sealed it. Victory for Canada.

“I don’t even watch hockey. I pay attention to politics. I care about politics. I’ve been feeling a lot more patriotic,” Virag said.

In Edmonton, as passionate a hockey town as exists in Canada, fans cheered their national team. It’s a fair bet that many of the fans at Campio, a downtown brewery, are Edmonton Oilers fans on any other day. Still, they were cheering for a team comprised of some of the most-loathed NHL players in the city. Among them, Sam Bennett, a Florida Panthers centre, who scored the second goal for Canada.

Canadians, as we always do, have set aside so many differences — few more feral than hockey team allegiance — in the face of American aggression, both on the ice, off the ice and in the nation’s barrooms.

Hockey, as with other sports, is a proxy for a city, a state, a nation’s pride, its confidence, its identity.

One woman, seated at the bar and wearing a red Canada cowboy hat, said she was playing hooky from work to watch the game.

“I think it’s a big deal, especially after Trump’s tweets reinforcing the notion of Canada being the 51st state,” she said. “We’re often quietly proud, this is one of the few times we’re loudly proud.”

If anyone still believed it, the idea that sport has no relationship with politics is now utterly indefensible. Have fans ever sung the Canadian anthem so loudly? In Montreal, no less? When last was the American anthem booed with such raw enthusiasm? Wayne Gretzky, the honourary team Canada captain and Canadian hockey icon, raised eyebrows when he strode past the U.S. team bench, giving players the thumbs up.

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Even the commercials were political. Save-on-Foods and Pizza Pizza both had obviously pro-Canadian advertisements. The Conservative and Liberal parties both had their advertising slots, in between the usual ads for cars and sports betting.

Not everyone sees the politics at play. For some, it’s still just about the game.

Gee Josue, wearing a Canada sweater, sat at a table before the game began; many nearby patrons were eating before attending an Our Lady Peace concert at nearby Rogers Place.

“I still look at it as sport first,” Josue said, as his drink arrived. “At the end of the day (the players) go back to their teams on both sides of the border.”

Whether politics or Trump played into Thursday’s passion or not, the game was about national pride. Of that there’s no doubt.

“It’s more just about asserting dominance as a hockey nation,” said Jake Morin, as he sat at the bar. “I think it’s a pretty big deal, to me — bringing pride to Canada.”

Still, the players made it political, intentionally or not, to say nothing of the politicians themselves.

After Team Canada’s Brandon Hagel put a beatdown on American Matthew Tkachuk last Saturday, he told reporters he threw hands “for the flag.”

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Noah Hanifin, a U.S. defenceman, said, with useful clarity, on Thursday morning that he was hoping for “the win tonight for our country and for Trump.” This came after Donald Trump spoke to the team, which White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said left the players “jubilant.”

“We look forward to the United States beating our soon-to-be 51st state, Canada,” Leavitt told reporters.

Well, that won’t happen. But this game was about far more than just hockey. How could it not be?

“I think it plays into it a lot,” said Krystal Vandenberg. “With Trump saying he’s going to annex Canada …. I think it has sparked a real patriotism in Canada. Hockey is our sport.”

This is one of the few times we’re loudly proud

It has been decades since tension between Canada and the United States as reached such heights and if there’s any place Canadians think they ought to be able to defend their national honour, it’s on the ice.

The Saturday fights — the fights were mysteriously absent Thursday — are, in some small way, a reflection of this tension.

Everywhere in Canada, there are expressions of patriotism. The little things: a new flag, plastered in the living room window.

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The little-but-inconvenient things: trying to figure out if that head of broccoli is USA grown.

The big things: cancelling enough trips to the U.S. that the tourism industry could see multi-billion-dollar losses, or selling the family Tesla.

It takes no great knowledge of history to understand just how much our relationship with the United States defines Canada’s identity and just how much threats from down south rally Canadians around the flag. Canadian pride, pollsters have found, has spiked 10 percentage points in the last year as Trump has amped-up his rhetoric.

Canadians, famously polite, have infamously been booing the Star Spangled Banner at NHL games.

Katie Vandenberg, originally from the United Kingdom, likened it to the raucous — and often rowdy — national pride fostered during soccer tournaments across the pond.

‘’It’s a hostile atmosphere, defending your country,” Vandenberg said.

Hostile, indeed. A win for Canada.

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