Don Cherry dishes out important advice to Team Canada ahead of final vs. USA

The championship game everyone hoped for is now officially happening on Thursday evening between Canada and the United States. The first time the two teams faced off in the 4 nations tournament on Saturday, the game featured everything fans watched to see in a show down of the two countries : three back to back fights in the first nine seconds, highlight reel goals and saves and some massive hits delivered from both sides. Team USA went on to defeat Team Canada 3-1, clinching a spot in the 4 Nations Face-Off final.

When it comes to a rematch on Thursday, former Canadian hockey coach and NHL analyst Don Cherry had an interesting take on what Team Canada must know when playing the final against Team USA.

On his latest podcast, Cherry offered up an explanation for the three consecutive fights at the start of the game, and the impact it had on the Canadian players. American forward Matthew Tkachuk and Canadian counterpart Brandon Hagel fought two seconds into the first period. Canadian forward Sam Bennett and Brady Tkachuk of the U.S. then dropped the gloves one second later. And after playing the actual game for six seconds, U.S. winger J.T. Miller fought defenseman Colton Parayko.

Cherry believes the three bouts aimed at disrupting Canada’s focus and game plan, and Grapes made sure to explained this as important advice for his Canadian players ahead of the final:

“I think it threw them off a bit. I do, I do. They had that planned. Right off the bat. The fights right off the bat threw Canada off,” said Cherry via the Grapevine podcast.

Cherry also posted a picture of one of the fights on his X account with the following statement in the caption:

“I thought all the sweethearts wanted to get fighting out of the game?”

Grapes has always loved a good fight in the game of hockey, and we cannot blame him for his take on the aspect. However, he was able to see here that the premeditated fights took some of the focus out of Canada’s game plan, and now, by explaining it on his podcast, the Canadian players may be more ready for the American antics on Thursday.