On Thursday night, Team Canada defeated Team USA in a thrilling conclusion to the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off tournament to claim supremacy in the world of hockey. And according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the game may just have had some deeper meaning as well regarding some of Donald Trump’s recent rhetoric about the border neighbors to the north.
Donald Trump has been quite vocal about his ambition of making Canada the 51st state in the United States. Whether you believe he is serious about this or not, it has further exemplified ongoing threats of imposing tariffs on Canadian goods entering the country.
This has sparked a back-and-forth between Trump and Trudeau on social media in recent weeks. And after Canada’s win over the U.S. on the ice on Thursday night, Trudeau made it clear that the United States cannot take the game of hockey and cannot take the country.
“You can’t take our country and you can’t take our game,” wrote Trudeau in a post on X.
You can’t take our country — and you can’t take our game.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) February 21, 2025
While Trudeau didn’t mention Trump by name, his message is quite clearly directed at Trump and goes far further than just Thursday’s hockey game.
Chances are, Trump won’t take long to respond to this kind of public callout. But at least when it came to Thursday’s game, Canada showed the United States that they were absolutely not pushovers.
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.