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Canadian befriends Today show hosts with grumpy Olympics video

Calgarian Michael Tobin was none too happy to see Canada lose the gold medal in women's hockey at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics on Wednesday night.

'Clearly, this Canadian picked the wrong section to sit in TODAY'

Sarah Rieger · CBC News ·
Calgarian Michael Tobin, upper left, and friends Beau Chaitan, Kelly Alguire and Robbin Hewitt with the staff of NBC's Today show in Pyeongchang. (Submitted by Michael Tobin)

Calgarian Michael Tobin was none too happy to see Canada lose the gold medal to the U.S. in women's hockey at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics on Wednesday night. 

And to make matters worse, he had to sit through most of the game directly in front of a group of boisterous American fans. 

But when he took a closer look at the group, Tobin saw it was none other than Al Roker, Hoda Kotb and the rest of NBC's Today show staff, who were cheering ecstatically for their country to win.

Tobin joked about his seat in a Twitter post that included a video of him looking grumpy as the Today show folks celebrated, writing: "Clearly, this Canadian picked the wrong section to sit in TODAY."

"Especially after when we lost, I figured my expression would show a good sense of humour, but also pretty much what Canada was feeling in that moment," he said.

Despite his disappointment, he struck up a friendship with Kotb and Roker. 

He was such a good sport, the Today crew invited him on the show on Thursday morning, where he recreated the video — and he invited them back to Canada House to cheer on the Canadian athletes.

Calgarian Michael Tobin appeared on the Today show to recreate his hilarious Twitter video from the stands at the U.S.-Canada women's hockey gold medal game. (Submitted by Michael Tobin)

"It was so much fun," he said. "It's turned into this really fun experience that, really, the Olympics is all about. It's about friendly rivalries and meeting people from other countries, and it just happened to be Hoda and Al Roker."

Tobin's video was a big hit on social media, with plenty of viewers joking that he should be invited to join Today as an Olympics correspondent. 

Even without his American network television debut, the 36-year-old said the Olympics has been a memorable experience.

"Canada House is always a highlight, it's so great to have a place everyone congregates and a place to watch the Games and cheer on everybody if you're not going to every event," he said. 

"I got the chance to meet [mogul skier Mikael] Kingsbury… and talk about his gold medal. And [half pipe skier] Cassie Sharpe was there at a victory ceremony with her gold medal."

Wednesday was the first gold medal win for the U.S. women's hockey team in 20 years. 

With files from Dave Dormer

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