Team USA and Team Canada are squaring off in the 4 Nations Face-Off on Saturday night. The rivalry matchup was turned up after the American National Anthem was booed before their Thursday game against Finland. That carried over onto the ice with three fights in the first nine seconds of the game. Brady Tkachuk squared off in the second one and explained the fights to ESPN's Emily Kaplan.

“Ya know what, I think it just happened pretty organically. Matthew said he wanted to go first and it just happened. It's over and done with now, now there's an opportunity to win the game here.”

When Kaplan asked about his brother's intentions, Tkachuk said, “Right when we found out the starting lineup, he said he wanted a piece of [Brandon Hagel].”

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Brady followed his brother up by fighting with Matthew's NHL teammate Sam Bennett. And then, JT Miller fought Canadian defenseman Colton Parayko to finish off the tripleheader. They were the first three fights of the 4 Nations Face-Off. Miller picked up an extra penalty on that play, so the Canadian powerplay killed the fighting momentum.

So in the same interview, Brady Tkachuk said the fights happened organically and his brother knew before the faceoff he wanted to fight Hagel. Considering Matthew and Hagel play for rival NHL teams, this may have been in the works even longer than that. Hagel spoke to Sportsnet's Kyle Bukaskas about the fight after the first period.

“I think I blacked out on it. Just trying to get some energy in the building, he asked and I'm not backing down from him,” Hagel said.  “Me and him have a pretty good history just going back and forth throughout the season. I thought potentially if we started together he was going to ask me. Long time coming.”