Team USA’s comeback against Canada at the 4 Nations Face-Off drew more viewers than almost any NHL game in recent history.
The 3-1 victory for the Americans drew significant reactions after Canadian crowds in Montreal booed “The Star-Spangled Banner” for days over the tariff wars between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and President Donald Trump.
The boos were even more significant due to the inclusion of several players in the tournament who play on teams that are rivals to Montreal’s NHL team. Even Canadian Brad Marchand, who plays for the Boston Bruins, said the crowds were being too cruel to the American players.
Saturday’s game saw a whopping 4.4 million viewers on average, according to the New York Times, with a peak of 5.2 million viewers. The audience was so big that the number beat out every regular-season NHL game in the last five years.
The last time that many viewers tuned in to a non-Stanley Cup game was in 2019, when the Columbus Blue Jackets played the Boston Bruins in the playoffs on NBC; that game averaged 4.5 million viewers.
At the same time, the international game reportedly saw more than three and a half times (369%) the typical viewership of NHL games on ABC this season. The numbers also trounced playoff games from 2024, which averaged 1.54 million viewers across each network (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, truTV).
Comparing the numbers to the last marquee matchup between the two nations, the 2016 World Cup of Hockey game between Team USA and Team Canada drew just 766,000 viewers.
‘We blow them out in their OWN STADIUM … AMERICA IS BACK.’
Saturday’s game seemed like one for the history books when three consecutive fights broke out just after the game started. Then, after Canada scored a goal about five minutes in, Team USA responded by netting three unanswered goals and outhit the Canadians en route to victory.
The action even spawned commentary from unlikely sources like Super Bowl champion Antonio Brown, who remarked on the Canadian crowd’s boos. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) unleashed a pro-America rant for the ages on his X account:
1–They booed our anthem
2–So we get into 3 fights in the first 9sec
3–We then net 3 unanswered goals
4–We blast Free Bird after each goal
5–And we blow them out in their OWN STADIUM
6–AMERICA IS BACK
With the win, the Americans clinched the top spot in the round robin, and after Canada easily handled Finland on Monday, the rivals will meet again for an epic rematch in the finals on Thursday night.
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