Flyers HC John Tortorella HILARIOUSLY reveals how he escaped heckling from Canadians following crushing 3-2 defeat in 4 Nations Face-Off championship game

Coach John Tortorella and Team USA suffered a crushing 3-2 defeat against their rivals Canada in the 4 Nations Face-Off championship game.

Flyers HC John Tortorella HILARIOUSLY reveals how he escaped heckling from Canadians following crushing 3-2 defeat in 4 Nations Face-Off championship game

John Tortorella (Image via Sporting News)

The 4 Nations Face-Off finale saw Team Canada once again get the better off their rivals Team USA on international stage. With an overtime goal from Connor McDavid, Canada defeated USA 3-2 last Thursday. John Tortorella recently revealed how he escaped heckling from Canadians following this loss.

The American international who serves as the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers, served as an assistant coach to Mike Sullivan alongside David Quinn and John Hynes. After winning their opening game against Finland, USA took down Canada 3-1 in the group stage match.

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Unfortunately for Tortorella and his team, they lost on the final hurdle. After going 1-0 down to Canada, they did manage to come back and led through goals from Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson. Their rivals came from this deficit and took home the trophy through a Connor McDavid overtime winner.

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In the press conference on Monday, Tortorella informed that he drove all the way back from Boston to Philadelphia instead of traveling back from a charter plane. He was planning to do this but after hearing that Canadian players of the Flyers will be on the plane, he decided that he was definitely not changing his plan.

I didn’t charter back, I drove back. I was planning to drive back anyway, but when I knew a bunch of Canadians were gonna be on there, I was definitely driving back. So I left pretty early in the morning, and they took the charter.

John Tortorella said

After another valuable experience with Team USA, the 66-year-old now turns his attention to the Philadelphia Flyers. His side won 6-3 against the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday during the resumption of the NHL season. They are now preparing to take on their rivals, Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.

Will the 4 Nations Face-Off return next year?

It is safe to safe that the NHL hit a jackpot with the 4 Nations Face-Off. The first best-on-best international hockey tournament in over 9 years received huge praise not just from the hockey fans but from other sport fans as well. A big question in the minds of some people is – will this tournament return next year?

Canada 4 Nations Face-Off trophy lift
Canada 4 Nations Face-Off trophy lift (Image via NHL)

This year, the 4 Nations-Face Off replaced the traditional NHL All-Star game. While it could easily replace this going forward, from next year, there will be international games. Hockey will return to the Winter Games and is scheduled to be played both in 2026 and 2030. In the middle of this, the World Cup of Hockey will also return in 2028.

Given this international games, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is unsure whether this event will return or not during the 2025-26 NHL season. Speaking on The Rich Eisen Show, the top boss claimed he does not have the right answers as of yet.

We’re looking to do a full World Cup, like you see in soccer. I don’t have all the right answers yet.

Gary Bettman said

The final game between Canada and USA draw a huge number of viewers. As per reports, the game garnered over 16.1 million viewers across both the countries. If this tournament does not return next year on turns out to be a one-off event, Canada will go down as the only champions of this competition.