All the credit for that goes to the players who, in the midst of a grueling 82-game league schedule, have chosen to throw their hearts and souls into this competition, highlighted thus far by Saturday’s USA-Canada game that was kicked off by three fights in the first nine seconds of the US’s defensively dominant 3-1 win in Montreal.

The heated hockey rivalry between the United States and Canada boiled over quickly on Saturday. As the two teams faced off for the first time since the 2022 Olympics, the game erupted into three fights within the first nine seconds of play.