What Bruins Rivals Expect From Boston Crowd In USA-Canada 4 Nations Showdown

When Toronto Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews steps onto the ice at TD Garden, he is usually met with a chorus of boos.

That won’t be the case Thursday night for Matthews, though.

Matthews will have plenty of cheers behind him for the time being as he sports the red, white and blue of Team USA in a monumental clash against Canada to determine the winner of the 4 Nations Face-Off. Matthews knows that a Boston crowd brings its best in the biggest games — he can point to the recent example of last year’s Game 7 first-round playoff loss to the Bruins.

And Matthews certainly expects those inside TD Garden to rise to the occasion again and create a raucous environment, but this time for Team USA.

“It’s obviously one of the best in the league,” Matthews told reporters Wednesday, per WEEI’s Scott McLaughlin. “Saturday night, to play in Canada and Montreal, another great atmosphere. In enemy territory obviously, different feel to it. It will be kind of nice to have the crowd support in this building. This building gets rocking as well. So, it will be a lot of fun.”

Matthew Tkachuk is in a similar position as Matthews. Tkachuk became a Bruins villain that last two seasons by ousting Boston from the playoffs as the leader of the Florida Panthers. But Tkachuk is looking forward to the warm welcome from the Boston crowd as well.

It will surely be an electric atmosphere inside the Garden, which could play a part in propelling Tkachuk and Team USA to a 4 Nations title.

“It’s going to be an incredible environment, just the lead-up and the buildup and everything that’s come with it has been incredible and something that we don’t take for granted,” Tkachuk told reporters, per the Boston Herald’s Steve Conroy. “The millions of people supporting us and the generations before us and the generations that we could add and the kids that are watching at home that want to be us, we could open up a whole new wave of hockey players in this country. So this opportunity is one we don’t take lightly.

“Obviously wearing the jersey and representing your country is such an incredible honor and what we play for. The opportunity we have Thursday is something I don’t even think we thought was possible and what we could create.”