Jon Hamm and Auston Matthews prove that Team USA is terrified of Team Canada
A different kind of heated rivalry
The Olympics are almost upon us, which means Heated Rivalry could soon be relegated to the second most urgent hockey story in the country. The Canadian men’s team will kick things off with a game against Czechia on February 12, while the US team will play Latvia later the same day. But that’s all just preamble to the presumed Canada-versus-America showdown in the finals. And Jon Hamm, of all people, is taking sides.
The Mad Men actor turned sports betting promoter is starring in an ad for NBC Olympics that attempts to position Canada as a punching bag. The commercial opens on Hamm in the locker room pumping up the US team, which includes Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk and Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews. Hamm mentions playing for the ultimate prize, at which point Jack Eichel (who plays for the Vegas Golden Knights) says, “Canadian tears.”
Related: How Sceptres captain Blayre Turnbull spends a day off in Toronto
“What did Canada do?" Hamm asks, and Tkachuk responds, “Stuff” as the ad cuts to the violent showdown between him and Canada’s Sam Bennett at the 2025 Four Nations tournament. Matthews gets in there too with a jab, and the whole thing just feels incredibly...desperate? Pathetic? A clear sign that we are living rent-free in the US hockey team’s collective consciousness.
Related: Wake up, Canada—Wayne Gretzky is MAGA
To put it in CanCon terms, Team USA is the guy sitting behind us in grade school forever pulling our pigtails and calling us Carrots. They’re obsessed and intimidated, and it seems they aren’t going to let it go until we break a slate over their head. So they pretend to be all tough with their “Canadian tears,” and honestly—yawn.
Related: Can we really blame William Nylander for flipping the bird?
No question, any Canada-US rivalry at Milano Cortina 2026 will be viewed in an entirely new light. The last time winter athletes came together in Beijing, the Canada-US border was, for many of us, like the door between two hotel rooms on a girls’ trip. Now the only rivalry more heated than Shane and Ilya’s may be the tension between these formerly friendly foes. So will there be tears? Almost certainly.
And if you’re wondering what Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner et al. may be cooking up in retaliation—it’s not a commercial.
Courtney Shea is a freelance journalist in Toronto. She started her career as an intern at Toronto Life and continues to contribute frequently to the publication, including her 2022 National Magazine Award–winning feature, “The Death Cheaters,” her regular Q&As and her recent investigation into whether Taylor Swift hung out at a Toronto dive bar (she did not). Courtney was a producer and writer on the 2022 documentary The Talented Mr. Rosenberg, based on her 2014 Toronto Life magazine feature “The Yorkville Swindler.”
