Regionalism and nationalism are natural elements of any international competition and the Toronto Maple Leafs aren’t exempt from it.

Auston Matthews and William Nylander were both booed ahead of the 4 Nations Face-Off opener between Team Canada and Team Sweden on Wednesday evening at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

Matthews is Team USA’s captain and joined Sweden’s Victor Hedman, Finland’s Aleksander Barkov and Canada’s Sidney Crosby for a meeting to commence the tournament officially. As the captain of the Maple Leafs, Matthews was naturally going to get some jeers from the Montreal crowd. It also doesn’t help that U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods, which has the potential to compromise a long-standing free-trade agreement between both countries.

Matthews took the boos in stride, laughing it off with a wave to the crowd. Team USA begins its tournament against Team Finland on Thursday evening at the Bell Centre, where he could face the same reaction.

As for Nylander, he’s an assistant captain for Sweden, while starring for the Maple Leafs during the regular season. Nylander is expected to be a focal point of Sweden’s offence, and he’d naturally receive some taunts from a crowd that was frothing for Canada’s arrival at a best-on-best tournament.

Nylander also grinned through the boos, he’s a naturally unflappable personality and took it in stride.

Montreal’s Bell Centre is host to the first four games of the tournament, including a marquee matchup between Team Canada and Team USA on Saturday — which you can enjoy with The Leafs Nation staff at Greta! — before the event shifts to Boston’s TD Garden for the latter three games, with the final taking place on February 20.

Montreal is making a case to be considered as the centre of the hockey universe, but one thing is clear: Maple Leafs stars will always live rent-free in the minds of opponents, when travelling across the hockey world, and international competition is no different!