John Tortorella Reveals How He Avoided Canadian Rivals After Crushing Four Nations Defeat
Team Canada came away winners in the first ever Four Nations, and it forced USA coach John Tortorella to avoid the Flyers team charter after the tournament, with the Flyers Head Coach not looking to deal with the gloating Canadians celebrating their massive victory.
The Four Nations Face Off will go down as one of the best decisions the NHL ever made, with Jordan Binnington's overtime heroics leading Team Canada to yet another gold medal in a best-on-best tournament.
Two of those Canadians were Travis Sanheim and Travis Konecny, both of whom play for the Philadelphia Flyers, with the team facing the Edmonton Oilers in Philadelphia days after the game, meaning that Connor McDavid flew with them back to Philly.
Unsurprisingly, that was a little too much for Team USA and Flyers Head Coach John Tortorella, who revealed on Monday that he instead decided to drive back to Philadelphia to avoid all of the Canadians.
Given all of the animosity and intensity that surrounded the tournament both on and off the ice, it's easy to see why there would have been some hard feelings, with both Sanheim and Konecny winning their first international tournament with Canada, and after the celebrations, it's safe to say that they wouldn't have hesitated to gloat about their victory to their Head Coach.
When things get back to the NHL level however, everyone will go back to being friends, as it was a competitive tournament on the ice with both teams and countries leaving it all on the ice, but in this instance Torts played it well, avoiding the Canadians after their highly emotional victory.
![Feb 20, 2025; Boston, MA, USA; [Imagn Images direct customers only] Team Canada forward Mitch Marner (16) warms up prior to the during the first periodau- during the 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey championship game at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-Imagn Images](https://i.marqueur.com/habsetlnh/medium/531807.webp "Feb 20, 2025; Boston, MA, USA; [Imagn Images direct customers only] Team Canada forward Mitch Marner (16) warms up prior to the during the first periodau- during the 4 Nations Face-Off ice hockey championship game at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Winslow Townson-Imagn Images")
