It takes one to know one.
Brad Marchand, who's made a career of bothering opponents in the NHL, briefly found himself on the other side of things as the Americans' Tkachuk brothers, Matthew and Brady, sought trouble throughout the 4 Nations Face-Off.
But after Canada emerged victorious with a 3-2 overtime win on Thursday at Marchand's barn in Boston, the longtime Bruin had the last laugh.
"They play their game. They do what they do. Sometimes when you shoot your mouth off in the media, it bites you. You can do that during the season, but when you're playing best-on-best it's different, and they got a little bit ahead of themselves," Marchand told reporters post-game.
"They're great players and there's not many guys in the league that play the way they do and they're extremely effective, but when you start giving teams ammo, it can work against you as well."
The Tkachuk brothers accounted for two of the three fights that took place in the first nine seconds of the Canada-U.S. round-robin game.
Afterward, they said they had conceived of the idea in a group chat with J.T. Miller, who was the third American combatant.
It led to a war of words with Canada's Brandon Hagel, who took on Matthew in the first of the tilts.
“We’re out there playing for the flag, not the cameras,” Hagel said. “We don’t need to initiate anything. We don’t have any group chats going on.”
Tkachuk later replied: “Well, I mean, maybe their team doesn’t like each other if they don’t have group chats."
Brady Tkachuk, meanwhile, did most of his talking on the ice, emerging as a key U.S. performer with three goals in four games — including the Americans' first marker on Thursday. Matthew was unable to skate for most of the championship game after he appeared to aggravate an injury.
Marchand, given his history, remained relatively quiet throughout the tournament and avoided extracurriculars for the most part.
But with a gold medal around his neck, he could finally chirp back.
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