Existence Is Overrated

the games were played in montreal at the bell centre and in boston at TD garden. as it was hosted by the nhl, only nhl players could take part - as opposed to worlds or the olympics which are hosted by the iihf and players from all kinds of international leagues are eligible to play. it took place across 'bye week' which usually occurs in february during an nhl season to give players a rest. this is also when the all-star game would occur.⭐

this marked the beginning of the return of nhl players to best-on-best international hockey tournaments. although nhl players largely formed their nation's teams in 2010 and 2014, the nhl did not release them to play for the 2018 and 2022 games. this was very exciting and something many of the top players had been long pushing for.🏒

the 4 nations then essentially functioned as a lead-up tournament for the 2026 winter olympics in milan, both to allow the players to get used to playing best-on-best international hockey, and to get fans and the media excited!

there was a huge media campaign which gave us some absolutely amazing gems like sid's 'four nations, facing off' ad (which led to some great memes), the awkward ad that gave us auston's whimsical 'it's me, it's auston', and connor's 'you guessed it! it's me, connor mcdavid', or the canadian team being asked to say something nice about the usa team leading to such answers as, 'they're alive', 'they can skate' and 'i live in the us' 😂

it certainly worked! the tournament was viewed as a welcome change to the all-star game that some felt had gotten a bit samey over the years, and we got to see lots of our favourite nhlers facing off that we'd never seen play each other before!

all of the FULL GAMES(!!) are avaliable for free on the nhl's youtube :) if you've got the time i really recommend watching the whole tournament, it was super fun and the crowd vibes were amazing!!

of course, the most anticipated games were between canada and the usa. not only have they been long-stablished hockey rivals with canada beating usa to olympic gold in 2010, this tournament also took place in the usa and canada and amongst political unrest between canada and the usa (you can read more here), so it very much felt like the whole of north america had eyes on this tournament - especially when both canada and the usa made it to the final! 🇨🇦🇺🇸

the usa had beaten canada 3-1 in the group stage, meaning tensions were definitely high. espeically since three fights broke out in 9 seconds before the game could even get underway... 🥊

so when the final ended up going to overtime and mcdavid scored the winner for canada, it felt like the epic, dramatic conclusion the tournament deserved! 🏆

Soooo, where were Will and Mack during all this? 👀

unsurprisingly, neither will or mack were selected for the 4 nations face-off. they were in their rookie years and a tournament with such a fast turn around such as this (only 2 days training together) required seasoned veterans to control the ice. that doesn't mean that mack wasn't already in the olympic conversation though:

Canadian general manager Doug Armstrong of the St. Louis Blues had a conversation with Celebrini back in October 2024 before a game against the Sharks. The youngster was told he likely wouldn't be in mix for the 4 Nations Face-Off — an appetizer to the Olympics the country won in dramatic fashion last February — but Milan was a realistic goal. "I was just excited," Celebrini said. "I didn't even know I was on the radar or even in the conversation. When he brought that to my attention, it was a little bit of a push and excitement; just a little bit more of something that I can look forward to and work to."

it was frankly insane that a rookie was already being talked about this way btw - many didn't think he wouldn't end up being selected for the olympics, but look where we are now!!! so proud 🥹

so what were will and mack up to?? we had no idea if we'd be seeing any signs of life at all over the break - many assumed they'd take the well-deserved break - so imagine our surprise when they appear at the beanpot final between bu and bc on february 10th in... matching/coordinated outfits??? crazy image seeing as they were facing off against each other in the same tournament a year ago. (great primer on boston hockey here:) 🫘

lotssss of speculation about this. both in decidedly neutral black for some reason? trying to blend in and go unoticed maybe? (spoiler: it did not work.) this was especially out of character for wsh who turned up to the beanpot in 2026 rocking a bc varsity jacket that matched gabe and leno's (while mack was at the olympics!) 💥

mack was bu-ing out in full force, reading out the starting lineup, waving a flag in the crowd and leading chants with fellow bu alum lane hutson. the crowd were loving it. this game meant a lot to him, not only because lots of his friends and his brother aiden were on the team, but also because bu had lost dramatically in ot the year prior to northeastern. ☹

of course mack was then super, super happy that bu won 4-1!! he was seen out celebrating with the team later that night :) and, as we later learned, this bu win would have repercussions for will too...

Jersey bet 1.0👕

i simply cannot believe this hasn't come up in a lore post of mine before, but here we go! will and mack have made yes, not one, but two jersey bets where the loser has to wear the other's college jersey.

the original bet was on three of bc and bu's games during the 24/25 season. once bc had won two of them, mack was forced to wear will's boston college jersey as he walked into the SAP center before their game with the penguins.🐧

the sharks won the game 2-1 with a winning goal from mack. and oh, did i mention that this game was a part of the sharks' dads and mentor's trip? yes. mack wore his boybestfriend's (and college rival's) jersey in the presence of his childhood idol sidney crosby, but also in front of rick, and will's dad too!! here they are at the team dinner together 🥰

mack talks about the bet and wearing will's jersey here:

Media: "Did Will make sure it was his?" Mack: "Yeah, yeah he did. He made sure it was the one he beat us in."

this is likely why it occured during the dad's trip! will literally had his dad bring it all the way from boston just to make sure it was his hehe <3

Jersey bet 2.0⏪

now linking back to bu winning the beanpot, turns out will and mack had made a bet again and now mack got to have his turn! after their first jersey bet gained widespread media coverage and it didn't come to fruitation for a few weeks, some started to speculate that it'd all got a bit bigger than will and mack had intended, and that maybe we actually wouldn't see this bet in action because they didn't want any more spotlight.

this was also partially because they went on a 17 day roadtrip, but LO AND BEHOLD, it turned out that they waited until boston came to town for will to walk in in mack's jersey. sheng peng asked mack if it was especially satisfying because "all of Boston is watching" and he agreed 😵‍💫

it's very important to me that will matched his red bull can to mack's jersey 🥹 (it's the white edition) which is something he often used to do when he was still a red bull athlete! so very endearing to me :,)

we also got this great walk-in vid as it was the sharks x warriors (nba) game, where mack admires his name on will's back towards the end (??)

(gif by @/macktism)

this is what mack had to say with a huuuuge grin on his face as he joked around:

Media: "Did you get some revenge on Will today, coming into the building?" Mack: "Yeah, it was great. He told me that the BU jersey is better than the BC jersey, so... He said that to me. Yeah, he did."

the sharks won the game 3-1 against boston, meaning that they are undefeated in games where will and mack wear each other's jerseys! 😁

Arizona trip🏌️‍♂️

back to will and mack's plans during the 4 nations break! let's cast ourselves into wsh's mind for a moment... you've already flown to boston from san jose with your boybestfriend. do you spend the rare week you have off from your very demanding job...

A) with your very large, very involved, and very local family?👨‍👩‍👧‍👦

B) cheering up your ex-college teammates and literal best friends after their loss in the final by planning some fun trips/nights out?🍻

C) hanging around in boston to catch some of the 4 nations faceoff games at TD garden?🏒

or do you...

D) go on a golfing trip in arizona with the boybestfriend you've been attached at the hip with and spent all your time with since rookie camp? on VALENTINES DAY????💞

well... i think you can guess with one will picked because i don't think any of the greatest willmack minds could have even written it. especially when at christmas break will flew 7 hours to boston to spend just 24 hours with his family.

that's right! sheng said:

Celebrini, Smith, and Ty Dellandrea also went to Arizona to golf; Celebrini said that none are particularly good golfers. What a beautiful way to spend your Valentine’s Day!

... well! we recently found out a little more in this interview with mack when he's talking about places he's golfed!

"We also golfed a couple really nice ones in Arizona. Uh, Whisper Rock and Silver Leaf, which are two amazing courses as well."

here they are taking a pic with a fan in an arizona bar that was posted to insta 📸

we got some more insight to the trip in this article:

With the NHL hosting the 4 Nations Face-Off, it gave those players who weren't playing a chance to get some rest. Celebrini and Smith were part of a group of Sharks players who organized a five-day golf trip to Arizona. Everything was planned out, down to the courses they'd play, but there was one detail they overlooked: Celebrini and Smith were too young to rent an Airbnb and needed Dellandrea, who is 25, to book their accommodations. "You forget how young they are sometimes," Dellandrea said. "I think we forget that because they're good people and as good hockey players as they are, they're still that young."

soooooo many things to unpack here.

1) they (or, let's be honest, will) seem to have been the driving forces for this trip if they were the ones to run into the airbnb age-limit for booking. okay! is that literally the only reason delly was invited at all? because...

2) we have hugely struggled to figure out who else is included amongst this 'group of sharks' that were supposedly golfing together when sheng lists just mack, will and delly!

if the above pic from one of will's ig photo dumps is from golfing in arizona, delly is the only other person tagged!

sheng also accounts for almost all of the sharks' movements during the break, including a large chunk of them (8!) going to hawaii, so it's not like they popped over to arizona to golf... will mentions golfing with delly and mack as a highlight of the break here while lots of the guys say their hawaii trip, ofc mack said the beanpot. was it really just will, mack and delly? soooo interesting! 👀

delly also 'went home for a couple of days' before arizona... rumour was that will and mack headed out to arizona first and delly joined them later.

3) 'their accomodations' - you don't tend to rent an airbnb for just one person, yet there appears to have been multiple booked?? willmack airbnb and delly on his own?? (because he linked up with them later??? who knows...)

anyway, this did a great deal for fic characterisation at a time. for many, this was a definite shift from 'oh these two are funny and cute together' to 'oh, there is something a little insane about the two of you... okay.' everything we learned about them at this early stage was in such quick succession and there was just so much happening rookie year! 🩵

Conclusion

in a nutshell, what this showed us for sure was that will and mack just genuinely love being in each other's company and literally, as toff said, 'need each other.' the break over the 4 nations was one of the rare opportunities to go and spend time with anyone but your teammates, but of course these two idiots wanted to spend it together <3