Brad Marchand had some words for Matthew and Brady Tkachuk following Team Canada's 3-2 overtime victory over the United States on Thursday in the 4 Nations Face-Off final.
"The Tkachuk brothers, they play their game, they do what they do. Sometimes when you shoot your mouth off in the media, it bites you," Marchand told reporters postgame, including WEEI's Tom Carroll. "You can do that during the season, but when you're playing best-on-best, it's different."
Matthew declared "it's our time now" following Team USA's 3-1 victory over Canada in the round-robin portion of the tournament. He also shared that the three fights in the opening 10 seconds of the game were planned in Team USA's group chat.
"That's called me, Brady, and (J.T. Miller) in a group chat during the day," Matthew said.
Marchand indicated that certain comments gave Team Canada bulletin-board material.
"They got a little bit ahead of themselves," Marchand continued. "But they're great players. There's not many guys in the league that do what they do, and they're extremely effective. But when you start giving teams ammo, it can work against you."
Marchand also clarified earlier comments in which he said this version of Team USA is "by far" the best he's seen.
"I said it's the best team that we've ever played against. I didn't say the best team ever," Marchand said.
Marchand recorded one goal in the tournament. The 4 Nations Face-Off victory is the latest in a long line of hardware for the pesky forward, who's also won a World Cup, a World Championship, two World Junior Championships, and a Stanley Cup.
