Matt is such a bastard on the ice at an international level when the urge takes him. Especially against Russia. This one has zero qualms about playing nasty if he feels justified. Hitting, slamming, high sticking hip checking the fuck out of anyone. Ivan yells something like "Fuck you Williams!" And Matt skates away stick over his shoulders going "Sorry, your sister already did. I'm skating circles round you because I can't sit down.😩" With a wink and Katya face palming because he asked her for permission to do that like a decade ago and it absolutely sends Ivan into a fucking fit. Those two with the right team fuck each other up so bad the stadium turns off the lights and threatens to sedate them.
He coaches timbits baby hockey here and there and he's a beloved coach who's always rough housing with the kids and skating with them up on his shoulders. Is known for sitting on the ice or on a bench just listening to them be frustrated and telling them through big feelings when things are hard. He mostly credits his patience with that to being the imperial baby sitter when Jack and Zee were coming up. Parents love him, he's gotten to watch some of his best players come up and nurture them and therefore his culture through them and it means the world.
He can be pretty self destructive when he's getting desperate for a win or a match is getting close, making attempts on the puck or on defence that get him thrown hard into the boards, getting his head fucked up, getting cut, bruised, bashed, smashed and sent flying. Has definitely gotten up from hits he shouldn't have and kept playing.
Might have set the record for the nation who's grown the the most teeth. Man's spitting his molars twice a decade at least.
Has definitely given himself so many concussions he's definitely tied himself to a dock and drowned himself to reset after he got concussed for like a tenth time. Might have gotten bad in the 1970s he had to go get ground to red goo and raw mince in a glacier crevasse and reboot entirely.
He gets SO emotional about hockey. Mostly just a quiet misery because he's still Matt and doesn't like or have the ability to be a pain about it but there has been a time or two where if he hadn't been coming off the ice covered in blood someone might have seen him crying. One of those rare moments where Arthur will go and be a dad because he's encouraged the cultivation of hockey its entire early history and if Matt's raging good chance the only person he'll listen too is the old man. Francois tried once and Matt nearly impaled him on a busted stick in an increasingly thick Hique accent. Alfred knows better than to even try if it's not his team that's fucked Matt up. He tries really hard not to be a bitch about it but he can absolutely be a brat if he's not knocking himself back into reality and taking a breath.
Jan (Netherlands) really likes to fuck him even after they've kinda broken up when he's played a rough game because it's as freaky as Matt gets and pushing on a battered body and fucking him hard grasping at bruised limbs against cold lockers makes him moan and Jan looooooves those painful needy sounds Matt doesn't usually make because he's not really a kinky fuck like that unless his blood really up.
Occasionally in the depth of his losing streak that lasted decades at the peak of the cold war he'd get his ass handed to him by the Soviet Union and be covered in bruises and shivering he's so soaked in sweat and spent but he won't mind because he'll catch a glimpse of Katya and even that glimpse makes every ounce of hurt and humiliation worth it. Maybe once or twice she even risked a smile and they have to pull him off the ice he's so drunk on endorphins. Or make him get his head checked he's got such a dumbass lovebird expression on his face.
Also plays excellent, high sportsmanship games. When he's not playing for his nation and identity as Canada he is genuinely a very fun player.
He is a person who can knock his skill levels down to make things even and challenge but not overwhelm an opponent. Or just puffs away like industrial revolution smoke stack to enjoy his beer league whales shit hockey. But especially willing to tone it down if it's for exhibition matches or a country that's newer into hockey like when it was becoming popular in Finland, Czechia, etc. He has fun when other people have fun playing even if he isn't being challenged because this is his game but it's a team sport. He wants his friends and allies to have a blast and participate.
A lot of people are surprised by what Matt's like on the ice. Both the fighting, swearing bastard and the jostling enthusiastic guy grinning lopsidedly like a teenager having the time of his life.
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