Hagel: Canada 'playing for the flag, not the cameras'

Brandon Hagel emphasized Team Canada's collective priorities over any individual motives.

The forward was asked Tuesday whether his squad needs to initiate physical play against an injury-plagued Team USA in Thursday's 4 Nations Face-Off final.

"I think we're out there playing for the flag, not the cameras," Hagel answered, according to Sportsnet's Eric Engels. "That's a part of Canada that we have in there.

"We don't need to initiate anything. We don't have any group chats going on. We're going out there playing our game and then giving it everything and doing it for our country. We don't need to initiate everything. We're just going to play as hard as we can and do it for the flag on the chest."

Hagel fought U.S. forward Matthew Tkachuk two seconds into Saturday's 3-1 victory by the Americans. The rival sides fought three times in the first 9 seconds of the game.

Hagel replied, "Five hundred?!" when asked how many times he's watched his fight with Tkachuk, per Sportsnet's Luke Fox.

Brady Tkachuk said over the weekend that Team USA had a group chat in which the players made plans for the matchup against Canada.

The U.S. will be without key defenseman Charlie McAvoy for the championship game due to injury. Matthew Tkachuk missed Monday's meaningless loss to Sweden and his brother got injured during that contest, but both reportedly intend to play Thursday.

Quinn Hughes joined Team USA on Tuesday after pulling out of the tournament before it began. However, he can only play if another blue-liner can't suit up.

Canada and the U.S. will meet at Boston's TD Garden at 8 p.m. ET on Thursday.