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Chaos erupted at the hockey match between the United States and Canada on Saturday evening as three altercations broke out in quick succession following a vehement booing of the American national anthem.
During the early stages of the game in Montreal, three distinct fights took place, underscoring the simmering tensions between the two nations, especially in light of President Trump’s recent threats to impose trade tariffs on Canada.
Trump also suggested the country could become America’s ’51st state’, prompting backlash from a close neighbor and longtime ally.
Despite Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau being present in the audience, the home crowd once again demonstrated their displeasure towards Trump by loudly expressing their disdain during the rendition of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’.
The booing came despite desperate pleas from PA announcers inside Centre Bell to ‘respect the national anthems’ before it played.
Fans lined up by the hundreds to get into the arena more than 90 minutes before start time and also booed every time a US player was shown on video screens during pregame warmups.
There were three fights inside nine seconds during the game between Canada and America
America’s J.T. Miller and Colton Parayko of Canada exchange blows in a red-hot atmosphere
Brady Tkachuk and Sam Bennett wrestle each other to the ground as chaos broke out
The crazed atmosphere in the stands clearly filtered its way down to the ice because complete chaos broke out before the game had even started.
Matthew Tkachuk and Brandon Hagel dropped the gloves just after the puck was dropped to start play.
Brady Tkachuk then fought Sam Bennett immediately off the ensuing faceoff.
And J.T. Miller and Colton Parayko went at it after some pushing and shoving around Canada goaltender Jordan Binnington after he covered the puck.
Before the game had even started, a picture emerged of an American fan trolling the Canadians by wearing a Canada jersey with ‘Trump 51’ on the back.
When the action finally took center stage, the Canadian fans were first to celebrate when Connor McDavid scored the opening goal.
But the Americans levelled it up when Jake Guentzel fired home to make it 1-1 at the end of the first quarter.
The American anthem was also booed in Montreal when the US played Finland on Thursday night, as well as before the NHL game between the Ottawa Senators and Minnesota.
It coms after President Trump ordered 25% tariffs on Canadian and Mexican imports and 10% on goods from China, sparking major trade war fears.
Boos could be heard ringing around the Bell Centre in Montreal during the US national anthem
Canadian fans loudly booed the US national anthem before their hockey game on Saturday
President Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Canada and suggested the country could become America’s ’51st state’, prompting backlash from a close neighbor and longtime ally.
A picture emerged of an American fan trolling the Canadians by wearing ‘Trump 51’ jersey
Trudeau said Canada would respond with 25% tariffs against $155billion of U.S. goods, including beer, wine, lumber and appliances, beginning with $30billion taking effect Tuesday and $125billion 21 days later.
Trump has – temporarily – paused his plans, giving Canada and the US a month to negotiate the planned import tax on all steel and aluminum products entering America from March 12.
On Thursday, though, Trump did threaten further tariffs on both Canada and France over their digital services taxes on US technology giants.
Canada, seeking to address the challenge of taxing digital giants like Google parent Alphabet and Amazon.com that can book their profits in low-tax countries, began imposing the tax in June last year.
Trump tasked his economics team on Thursday with devising a plan to impose reciprocal tariffs on every country that levied duties on U.S. imports.
A White House fact sheet, stating that ‘only America should be allowed to tax American firms,’ complained Canada and France used digital services taxes to each collect over $500 million per year from U.S. companies.
‘Overall, these non-reciprocal taxes cost America’s firms over $2 billion per year. Reciprocal tariffs will bring back fairness and prosperity to the distorted international trade system and stop Americans from being taken advantage of,’ said the fact sheet. It gave no further details.