TORONTO — Brad Marchand might be the best example of how international hockey provides a momentary shift in fans’ loyalties.

Come February at the 4 Nations Face-Off, the Boston Bruins captain may very well be cheered in Montreal … and jeered in Boston?

“It’ll be a different feeling,” Marchand smiled over the weekend.

And hearing cheers, finally, at the Bell Centre, could be interesting.

“I’ll take that off-set for a couple of days,” he chuckled. “It’ll be something I can laugh about.

“I’m more excited definitely to be cheered in Montreal (than potentially booed in his NHL home in Boston).”

No question that what the 36-year-old Marchand looks forward to most, though, is playing alongside his fellow Nova Scotia natives Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon. Who knows, maybe even on the same line.

Either way, those three, who work out in the summer together back home, are in regular contact, eagerly awaiting the February tournament.

“Yeah, we talk a lot,” Marchand said with a smile. “We have a good group chat going. We’re all very excited. It’s a privilege to be able to play on the same team as those guys. We have fun and practice together in the summertime.

“It’s not often you have a dynamic like the one we have on a team. We’re all very excited and proud of it and really looking forward to playing together.”

MacKinnon didn’t hide his feelings on 4 Nations.

“I’m very excited to play with everyone and especially Brad and Sid,” MacKinnon said. “They were two of my role models growing up and paved the way for me to chase my dreams of playing in the NHL. Two of the most competitive guys in the league. We’re all lucky to have them on Team Canada!”

Added Crosby: “It will be cool to play with them. We skate a lot together in the summer, and I’m really grateful to be with them on the same team.”

Brad Marchand, Sidney Crosby and Nathan MacKinnon pose together at the 2018 All-Star skills competition. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

All three Nova Scotia pals were part of Team Canada’s original six players named for 4 Nations last June. They sat back like the rest of us and monitored how Team Canada populated the rest of the roster announced Dec. 4.

Not easy.

“It’s an extremely tough choice,” Marchand said. “You hear it all the time when these teams are made: You can easily ice two teams in Canada. There’s a lot of great players that unfortunately aren’t part of it. They have a vision of what they want, the type of players they want. The biggest thing is building a team. Sometimes that doesn’t mean always taking the most talented players.

“The group we have, it’s an extremely competitive team, and that’s what you look for in these groups.”

Marchand is no stranger to wearing the Maple Leaf after playing in two world juniors and a men’s IIHF worlds, but it’s the 2016 World Cup of Hockey in Toronto that was his introduction — and as it’s turned out, his only experience so far with best-on-best hockey.

“The World Cup (in 2016) is by far my favorite,” Marchand said of his Team Canada experiences. “Just because when I got to the NHL, I never, ever thought or expected that I could be at that level or be part of a team like that. I remember my first day sitting down in that room and looking around and thinking, ‘I don’t belong here.’

“From where my career started to get to that point, it was such a tremendous growth or 180 jump to even be in conversation with that group. So that was really special. And it kind of projected me to the last eight years and how things have gone. To be part of that group and be so nervous going into it and not feeling I belong, to how comfortable I got pretty quickly and how close I became with some of the guys was obviously pretty special.”

Marchand was spectacular at that 2016 World Cup, scoring five goals in six games as Team Canada won its third consecutive best-on-best event dating back to the 2010 Olympics.

While Crosby and Marchand got to play together at the World Cup, the Olympic experience has so far eluded the Bruins captain, mostly because the NHL hasn’t been since 2014 in Sochi.

He has picked Crosby’s brain about what the Olympics are like, as he has with his old Bruins pal Patrice Bergeron, another Team Canada Olympic mainstay.

“Obviously Bergy and I are very close,” Marchand said. “There’s a lot of guys who were part of those teams and you see their comfort level. It makes you feel comfortable in that environment when you have guys who have been through it and had success. You just kind of follow them and act like they do. Their comfort level in those situations bleeds through the room.”

What Bergeron tried to share with his friend is the importance of quickly forging chemistry with new teammates in those short, high-profile tournaments.

“I mean, he knows how special it is to represent your country on the international stage, whether it’s world juniors or the World Cup for him, and now the 4 Nations,” Bergeron told The Athletic. “It’s always special. But it’s more trying to share how you try to connect with guys in a short tournament and how we try to soak everything in and learn as much as you can and really be grateful for what you’re about to experience.

“So it’s a lot of fun. I have great conversations with Marchy all the time, but those experiences, for me — the Olympics and anytime I could represent my country — was very special. And great memories.”

Patrice Bergeron, Sidney Crosby and Brad Marchand played together for Canada at the World Cup of Hockey in 2016. (Dennis Pajot / Getty Images)

Marchand’s experience will be needed when considering the pressure Team Canada is under to perform.

“Oh for sure,” Bergeron said. “The expectations are always there. I remember something Steve Yzerman said to us in 2010 at the Olympics after we lost to the U.S. in the round-robin.”

As Bergeron remembers it, Team Canada’s general manager spoke to the team in the wake of this country freaking out that it had lost a game. Yzerman picked up a newspaper and pointed to the real-world things happening around the world — real-life struggles, people risking their lives — to put in perspective playing hockey. Bergeron said Yzerman told Team Canada’s players to just enjoy the challenge and be grateful and just play like they could. Because it’s just a game.

The message resonated in Team Canada’s dressing room.

“To me, it was pretty important to understand that,” Bergeron said. “It was reminding us that we were still in a great situation. We were very fortunate. Let’s go out and play at the level we were capable of. After that, we went back to playing dominating hockey.”

All of which still translates today, but in particular at a time when Canada’s national pride is hurting after another early exit at World Juniors. It probably adds another level of urgency to Canada performing well at the 4 Nations.

Which is why experience will matter under that microscope. And Bergeron feels vets like Marchand and Crosby will be important that way.

“It’s not always going to be easy or a straight path in tournaments like this,” Bergeron said. “You have to believe in your ability and be grateful for the opportunity that you have.”

The World Juniors fallout is a reminder of how much the sport matters here. Not that Marchand or any other Team Canada player needs a reminder of it. They already know.

“I think the people that hold the highest expectations are the guys in the room and those building the team,” Marchand said. “We know the importance of playing for this team and the expectations that come with that, and we have them as well.”

Now, having said that, Marchand added, the 4 Nations has four great rosters. It’s the cream of the cream.

“Every team going into that tournament, you’re picking some of the best players in the history of the game right now when you look at some of these guys and what they’ve done and what they’re going to do,” Marchand said.

“So there’s going to be very small margins, and these single-elimination games, anything can dictate the outcome. So it’s tough. All you can do is prepare the best you can and compete at your highest level. However it’s meant to be, it’ll be.”

Pressure? Of course.

“That’s what comes with playing for Canada,” Marchand said. “It’s the country that cares about hockey the most. It’s the most scrutinized. That’s part of being in the position we’re in. And we’ll take that any day.”