A quartet of Team USA hockey stars took the stage on Saturday Night Live this weekend.
Megan Keller and Jack Hughes, the two players who scored the gold medal-winning goal in overtime, were present, as were Hilary Knight, the U.S.’s all-time leading women’s scorer, and Hughes’ younger brother, Quinn, who led the men in scoring.
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The quartet stood next to host, The Rivalry star Connor Story, to watch his decidedly hockey-focused monologue. First came the Hughes brothers, Jack still missing two of his front teeth, and then the women were met with a noticeably louder and longer round of applause.
A joke representative of the overall material:
Quinn: Which team are you on?
storey: Boston Raiders
jack: Boston Raiders? What league is that? National Hockey League?
Less than a week after the Olympics, the men’s team defeated Canada to win their first gold medal since the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980, and the women’s team also defeated Canada to win their second gold medal in three Olympics. This is the first dual hockey gold medal in U.S. history.
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Such periods are usually spent in patriotic glory — and it certainly still happens — although both teams also found themselves facing some tension, as President Donald Trump joked that he would be impeached if he didn’t invite a woman to the White House as well.
The Hughes brothers expressed respect for the women’s team in subsequent interviews Monday, while Knight called the joke “disgusting” but said she just wanted to move on.
Apparently, none of this was on the SNL show.
With both the NHL and PWHL quickly resuming play this week, all four players will have to fit games into their busy schedules. Keller and Jack Hughes actually both played early Saturday — Keller in Ottawa, Hughes in St. Louis — before rushing to New York. However, Knight was placed on long-term injured reserve on Friday with an Olympic injury.