The recent 4 Nations Tournament Showdown left many people drained. On top of the best-on-best format was laid the bubbling Canada/ United States political drama.  As we wrote in the wake of the round-robin U.S. win over Canada any thoughts of friendship went out the window, Fast. It was a night few will forget. The 3-1 score of Team U.S. over Team Canada being secondary to other outcomes.

“Expecting a guys’ weekend like the concurrent NBA All Star game, the fraternal folks instead got a Pier Six brawl. It was the most stunning beginning to a game most could remember in 50 years. (Not least of all the rabid Canadian fanbase urging patriotism in the home of Quebec separation) Considering this Four Nations event was the NHL’s idea to replace the tame midseason All Star Game where players apologize for bumping into each other during a casual skate, the tumult as referees tried to start the game was shocking.

Despite public calls for mutual respect, the sustained booing of the American national anthem and the Team Canada invocation by MMA legend Georges St. Pierre was answered by the Tkachuck brothers, Matthew and Brady, with a series of fights in the first nine seconds of the game. Three fights to be exact when former Canuck J.T. Miller squared up with Brandon Hagel. (All three U.S. players have either played on or now play for Canadian NHL teams.)

Premeditated and nasty. To say nothing of the vicious mugging of Canada’s legend Sidney Crosby behind the U.S. net moments later by Charlie McEvoy.”

In the rematch for a title created just weeks before by the NHL  the boys stuck to hockey. Anthem booing was restrained. Outside of an ill-advised appearance by Wayne Gretzky— now loathed for his Trump support— the emphasis was on skill. Playing largely without injured Matthew and Brady Tkachuk and McAvoy, the U.S. forced the game to OT where beleaguered goalie Jordan Binnington held Canada in the game until Connor McDavid scored the game winner.

For Canadians invested in debunking Trump it was a delirious moment. For hockey fans starved for best-on-best it was a triumph.

But what about the less-appreciated aftermath of the brief tournament (held without Russians, Czechs or Slovaks)? Perhaps the most public outcome was the now-demonization of Gretzky in Canada. Just as they had with Bobby Orr, another Canadian superstar living in America, Canadians wiped their hands of No. 99 over politics. Despite appeals from Orr, Don Cherry and others, the chance to make Gretzky a Trump proxy was too tempting.

We have been in several arguments on the subject among friends: Does Gretzky owe Canada something after carrying its hockey burden for so long? Could he have worn a Team Canada jersey? Shouldn’t he have made a statement that he backs Canada in its showdown with Trump? For now 99 is 0 in his homeland.

More tangibly it seems that the stars of the Canadian and American teams are suffering from a hangover themselves from the emotional series. Toronto captain Auston Matthews— victimized on the OT goal against Canada— has been sluggish as his Leafs, hoping to avoid the play-in segment of the postseason, are a tepid 5-4-1 in their last ten. By his own admission he and his team have lacked a killer instinct since the 4 Nations.

McDavid and his Edmonton Oilers are sputtering, too. While Leon Draistaitl carries the freight (as a German he was out of 4 Nations), McDavid’s Oilers are an uncomfortable nine points up from missing the playoffs. Heading into a contract run, McDavid seems exhausted some nights as rumours swirl about his next deal. It’s hard to see how the tournament hasn’t taken a toll.

On the U.S. side, Florida has had to battle on with Tkachuk, its emotional leader, out for the regular season after the injury sustained in the 4 Nations. There’s more. As much as fans loved the great drama, NHL owners will be wary of losing their best players to injury in future tournaments. It’s a reason there has been so little best-on-best hockey the past generation.

Perhaps the least-appreciated backlash so far from the 4 Nations turmoil is the effect of Canadians, who have many Americans playing in their nation, booing the Star Spangled Banner. Under the heading of sin in haste/ repent at leisure, the impulsive show of bad sportsmanship may have felt good at the moment. Leftist Toronto Star scribbler Bruce Arthur, said “You’re damn right Canadians should boo the anthem.”

But what repercussions will Arthur’s temper tantrum have on Canadian teams in the NHL, NBA, MLB? Most Canadians we asked dismissed the impact, but imagine you are an American free agent or a player with a no-trade clause contemplating an offer to play in Canada. Having seen your national anthem disrespected will you let bygones be bygones?

It remains to be seen if a Canadian federal election held alongside the NHL playoffs will have any repercussions on the ice. But in the current manic mood of Canadians freaked out by Trump nothing is beyond possibility.

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.

It’s easy to get lost in the tariff forest and lose sight of the cultural trees these days. For instance, American lefty comic Bill Maher used his show to lampoon the Oscars’ tribal-recognition piety. (“’I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again—either give the land back or shut the f*** up!’). In the past this impertinence would have meant instant excommunication from the Woke culture. But “made man” Maher remains employed.

As DEI wanes around the U.S. this sort of apostasy is becoming more commonplace in America. For many voters a weight has been lifted since Donald Trump exposed the Left’s vanities in the 2024 election.

But with the Liberals’ selection of Mark Carney as their new leader, it’s certain Woke mafia will remain firmly in place in Canada. Example: a conservative politician in BC was canned by his own party for having the temerity to admit that the $20 million directed from government turned up no residential school murder victims in a B.C. graveyard. Which is an undeniable fact, but irritating to David Eby’s designated victims groups.

A nervous Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has made noises about ending DEI and de-fanging the media’s gotcha industry. But with Trump now diverting Canadians’ focus from the Liberals decade-long failure to doing O Canada donuts in the parking lot the chances are slim that PP does a DOGE purge like the one down south to free Canadians from the progressive mania.

While the Trump is putting paid to the American Woke circus— he’s gutting the EPA as we speak— a Mark Carney Canada will keep the Trudeau scold culture going full-bore. Judging by his disastrous turn at the Bank of England from 2013-2020  (by the time he left, UK inflation spiked up to a peak of 11.1 per cent compared to 5.2 per cent in France, or eight per cent in Italy that means heavy doses of climate hysteria, DEI observance, unchecked immigration and printing money for pet projects.

Former UK PM Liz Truss is more succinct. She says that Mark Carney’s mangling of her economy with zero emissions and a busy printing press will not be good for Canada. Carney is trying to divert from his radical resumé, saying America must show Canada “respect” before he deals with them. Carney may be new to this Canada thing, but he might want to know that his predecessor recently chided Americans for yet again not electing a woman president. And he secretly counselled Zelenskyy to embarrass Trump’s peace deal in the Oval Office. And he mocked Trump about Canada defeating the U.S. in hockey.  Respect? Sock it to me.

But this skirmishing hides the real story. Why are 43 percent of 18-36 male CDNs telling pollsters they would accept U.S. citizenship if they were guaranteed full rights and financial protections? While these young men may appreciate Canada they’re not motivated by the Boomer nostalgia for the Canada of 1967-2000 that is powering the current patriotic spasm. The pivotal cultural battle against DEI will likely be fought among the under-40 demographic brought up with political correctness— but now souring on its stultifying effect on their earning power.

Why? In the National Post climate expert Bjorn Lomborg has a guess after Carney’s wild accusation that Poilievre would “allow the world to burn”. “Nearly half of young Canadians believe we’re doomed because of climate change. No wonder. They’ve grown up bombarded both by footage of natural disasters, and by activists’ claims that climate change is making the planet unliveable. The flood of disaster porn is terrifying our kids and skewing our perception, and that can only lead to bad climate policy..”

Millennials also experience the futile struggle to afford a home while Canada’s bureaucrats announce $272 million to Bangladesh for 1) Intersectional Democratic Spaces 2) Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Education 3) Community Resilience through Locally-led Inclusive Adaptation. Say what?

There is also fear that the former captain of the United Nations’ global net-zero carbon emissions will destroy the financial prospects for under-40s by clinging to CO2 hysteria when the world wants Canada’s fossil fuels. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Monday that with new pipelines, her province could increase exports to the U.S. by two million barrels a day. Carney is dead-set against it.

While the Media Party is not talking much about them the fight for these younger minds will come down to the debate. Which leader will move under 40s to vote for them? They’re not as moved by patriotic O Canadas citing the 1972 Summit Series or Terry Fox. Will they choose Banker Carney, who takes his climate policy cues from an teenaged Swedish psychiatric patient, or from PP, the apple-munching Pit Bull?

It’s time that Canada’s aging elite ceded a greater voice in the national debate. They need an intervention of the type Trump is now performing on Canadians addicted to sitting in first class but paying economy. He brought them into a room with the chairs and levelled with them about getting the free stuff they assumed was their right. Defence, security, trade, medical access. He’s the first president to do this in half a century.

And like all people addicted, CDN Boomers don’t want the truth. They want performance theatre, T-shirts and hockey games. They blame Trump for their predicament, caught between grim realities. Will they take the 12 steps? Or will their kids have to tell them the facts as they escort them to the home?

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster. His new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed Hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org. You can see all his books at brucedowbigginbooks.ca.