Brad Marchand, Team Canada Get Ultimate Chirp Against Tkachuk Brothers

BOSTON — After Team Canada defeated Team USA to clinch the first ever 4 Nations Face-Off championship Thursday night at TD Garden, Bruins captain Brad Marchand got the last laugh at the expense of longtime rivals Matthew and Brady Tkachuk.

“They play their game. They do what they do,” Marchand said. “Sometimes when you shoot your mouth off in the media, it bites you. You can do that during the season, but when you’re playing best-on-best, it’s different. And, they got a little bit ahead of themselves.

“They’re great players and there’s not many guys in the league that play the way they do and they’re extremely effective, but when you start giving teams ammo, it can work against you as well.”

Marchand, who’s known as one of the best chirpers in the league, was referring to when the Tkachuk brothers and USA teammate J.T. Miller admitted to having a group chat that conceived the explosive three-fight beginning to the round-robin game between the two clubs at the Bell Centre in Montreal last weekend.

Brandon Hagel, who dropped the gloves with Matthew off the opening faceoff, took exception to the antics.

“What happened the other night, I did it for the flag, not the cameras,” Hagel told reporters, per TSN’s Jay Onrait.

Matthew Tkachuk didn’t let it end with Hagel’s comments. He fired back another shot at Team Canada.

“Maybe their team doesn’t like each other then if they don’t have group chats” Tkachuk said on Wednesday, per a SportsNet video. “… Our team doesn’t care about anything that they say.”

Marchand and Hagel had the right to chirp back with gold medals around their necks. Hagel dropped the ultimate troll with a post to his Instagram story.

The Tampa Bay Lightning forward posted a photo a group chat labeled “Champions” with the initials of his Team Canada teammates.