When is a hockey game more than a hockey game? When a president placed a foreplay Call To pump up the players, a prime minister Offers postgame commentand monuments like the Empire State Building and the CN Tower in Toronto illuminated in national colors For the competition.
The NHL-Nations-Nations-Nations-Finals of the NHL in Boston on Thursday evening between Team Canada and Team USA was a brilliant hockey game that the Canadians suddenly won 3-2 in overtime. But beyond the big hockey, the game served as an alarming evidence of the state of Canadian-American relationships.
We have reached an icy low. Canada's injuries and no mistakes, Canada's injuries will be America and California at some point.
No moment on the ISEI, an example of the off-Ice feeling as the preliminary game between the same two teams in Montreal the week before. The angry Canadian crowd mocked The American Olympia figure Skating medalist Michelle Kwan and booze “The star banner.” Then three American players selected it with three fights in the first nine seconds of the game because they “had to send a message. “”
The bad blood lies over an impending trade war between the two countries and the broader fears of the Canadians in front of the new American government.
Bats fight with words and fists. On the day of the final, press secretary of the White House, Karoline Leavitt said She was looking forward to “defeating the team USA,” our soon 51st state of Canada “. Canadian columnists are now” now “frightened”Of the United States; One, Pete McMartin from the Vancouver Sun, recently wrote“Goodbye America. … I have reached this point in our relationship, where every admiration that I had for it was replaced by a new, angry determination, namely: I will not be related to the enemy. “
Not since Wayne Gretzky's hat trick The 1993 Stanley Cup final has a hockey game for California. Canada and California that have about the same population groups have exchanged almost 30 billion US dollars Two-way trade When the Canadian consulate in LA reported in 2020 that 774 companies in Canada used more than 76,000 Californians. Millions of Canadian travelers spend billions of dollars in California every year.
But Canada and California not only share the trade. Hollywood has a great creative partner in our northern neighbor. Hits like “Titanic”, “The Revenant”, “Deadpool” and “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” were file in Canada. And the golden age of television would not be so gold without Canada: shows, including “The Handmaid's Tale” (based on the book by the Canadian author Margaret Atwood), “Schitt's Creek” (with the Canadian Eugene and Daniel Levy) and even the ” Property Brothers ”are Canadians.
It is fitting that a sport that once reflected America's cold war with the Soviet Union reflects an emerging trade war with Canada. Admittedly, we talk about economic devastation rather than nuclear. And yet the expression “Mutually secured destruction” applies. A trade war – this with a long -time ally and not an opponent – is like a hockey fight in which everyone loses. The only question is how bad.
Take the rackets that fought in Montreal. Instead of playing out your hearts for your country, you consciously sit down in the penalty area. All pain, no profit. But that's exactly what the racket do. You choose the performative about performance, a spectacle about the contribution, I was about our exact opposite of the legendary Gold Medal win of 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team all around.
Bats never really win because it is only about pulling others down. Of the six who fought in Montreal, Nobody achieved.
This happens when we hand over our games and governments to the rackets. Canada and California have far too much to lose to leave it, not least at the intersection of business and sport. The World Cup 2026 – a joint venture from the United States, Canada and Mexico – shows Seven games In the Sofi Stadium in Inglewood. We cannot allow Border longer than 34 Korean DMZ.
How can we get the puck from where it is, where we want it?
We need the good and girls to drown out the rackets and reject the ridiculous in favor of the rational. Canada will never become the 51st state Because Canadians don't want it and the Democratic Party would have a Cali-size electoral strip. And do you remember the 2018 steel tariffs, which was raised (among other things) the first Trump government against Canada? You couldn't because they were gone over a year. Rationality won.
The good and girls in the National Hockey League and other cross -border sporting events can also help here. If you cannot guarantee mutual respect for our national anthems, we find other areas of similarities.
Try a moment of silence for our emergency staff. Both nations sent firefighters to react to the different fires of the other past years. “Good neighbors are always there for each other,” Alberta's Forest Minister of Alberta said When he sent firefighters to Los Angeles last month and returned the favor for 2023 when “firefighters in California bravely supported Alberta in a time of great needs”.
No matter how bad things look, no matter what angry words are spoken, no matter how many fists are thrown, we are neighbors and friends, and the good and girls of Canada and California will win. We only need them to speak.
Now would be a good time.
ML Cavanaugh is a co -founder of the Modern War Institute at the West Point and author of the upcoming book “Best scar Wins: How you can be more than before”. @Mlcavanaugh