As Megan Keller took a Taylor Heise stretch pass at the blue line in overtime of the women’s gold medal game, much of the American men’s hockey team crowded around a screen to watch. When Keller turned Canadian defender Claire Thompson inside out and slipped the puck between the pads of goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens, the men erupted in celebration.
“We’re all standing up, going nuts, clapping,” Brady Tkachuk said.
With their own semifinal against Slovakia looming the next day, most of the men didn’t attend the game, but they were there in spirit. The respect between the two teams had grown into a real bond over the course of the Olympics.
“They came to a lot of our games, and we went to a lot of theirs,” forward Grace Zumwinkle said after the tournament. “And I think there was that mutual level of respect. And it was evident with Ellen Hughes also being on our staff as well, and her two sons (Quinn and Jack) being on the (men’s) team. So, yes, we did feel the respect, and then just having been in the Village with them, as well, was a good experience.”
Three days later, the American men made it double gold for USA Hockey, with Jack Hughes’ golden goal giving the U.S. its first Olympic championship in men’s hockey since the Miracle on Ice in 1980, 46 years earlier to the day. But instead of a prolonged celebration of two historic teams, the afterglow of the men’s gold quickly devolved into a political firestorm, one that stretched from Milan to the U.S. Capitol to the “Saturday Night Live” and “Tonight Show” studios in New York. The discourse over a locker-room interloper, a “distasteful” joke and a once-perfunctory trip to the White House created headlines all over the world, forced players to answer uncomfortable questions about their politics, and dampened enthusiasm for what had been a watershed moment in American hockey history.
The unifying joy and celebration of the accomplishment lasted all of an hour or so. The scrutiny of what was done and said and laughed at in the locker room is still ongoing.
Here’s how it all went down:
An instant after Zach Werenski and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck break up a Connor McDavid rush, Jack Hughes — who started the tournament as a fourth-liner and an afterthought in the midst of another injury-plagued season — wins a puck battle with McDavid behind the net. Hughes then wins another 50/50 puck with Cale Makar at the blue line, before sending the puck into the offensive zone, where Werenski outmuscles Nathan MacKinnon for the puck, then sends a cross-ice pass to Hughes, who buries a shot past Jordan Binnington at 4:52 p.m. Milan time for the golden goal.
The celebration is on. First along the boards between the penalty boxes, where the dogpile began. Then all over the ice. Brady Tkachuk embraces captain Auston Matthews, then Matthew Tkachuk wraps up his kid brother in a bear hug. Brady Tkachuk has an American flag draped around his shoulder as “U-S-A” chants fill Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. Matthew Tkachuk holds a flag aloft and the Americans take turns skating it around the rink as if it were the Stanley Cup.
Eventually, Matthew Tkachuk and Werenski skate a Johnny Gaudreau jersey around, alongside a flag-draped Matthews. Two of Gaudreau’s children sit in on the on-ice team photo, with Werenski holding 3-year-old Noa and Dylan Larkin holding 2-year-old Johnny Jr.
The U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team honors the late Johnny Gaudreau by bringing two of his kids onto the ice during the gold medal celebration. (Peter Kneffel / Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
After the medal ceremony, the national anthem and a jubilant walk through the mixed zone, Team USA enters its locker room to celebrate. American general manager Bill Guerin invites his friend, FBI director Kash Patel, into the locker room. Patel is a well-known hockey fan; he sat with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and hockey legend Wayne Gretzky as Alex Ovechkin tied Gretzky’s all-time goal mark last spring in Washington. Patel is later criticized for using a government jet to fly to Milan for the Olympics, though a spokesman said he had “highly productive meetings in Italy focused on strengthening joint counterterrorism coordination, transnational crime enforcement, the extradition of high value targets and Olympic security planning with our closest allies.”
Patel quickly finds himself at the center of the Americans’ locker-room celebration, as seen in Dylan Larkin’s live Instagram video. He chugs a beer and pumps his fists as the players cheer him on. Matthew Tkachuk, in what will become a signature move for him over the week, drapes his gold medal around Patel’s neck. Patel and the players then begin singing Toby Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American).” The footage of the celebration appears to be coming from Tage Thompson’s phone.
Through Patel, U.S. president Donald Trump calls into the celebration. Patel’s phone simply reads “DT” on the screen as he puts the president on speaker.
Trump: “Your goalie played not bad.”
Matthew Tkachuk: “Helly! Say hi to him!”
Trump tells the team that the State of the Union address will be on Tuesday night, in two days.
“I can send a military plane or something,” Trump says. “If you would like to, it’s the coolest night.”
Matthew Tkachuk immediately says, “We’re in!” which is met by universal agreement.
Matthew Tkachuk: “Can you pick us up in Miami on Tuesday morning?”
Trump: “We’ll get Kash and we’ll get the military to get you guys over here.”
Matthew Tkachuk: “Thank you, Mr. President.”
Trump: “And we’ll do the White House the next day. We’ll just have some fun. We have some medals for you guys. And I must tell you, we’re gonna have to bring the women’s team, you do know that.”
At this point, Tkachuk says, “Absolutely,” while another player yells, “Two for two! Two for two!”
Trump responds by saying, “I do believe I probably would be impeached, OK?” to which many of the players laugh.
Trump says he’d “be honored to have you,” and Patel chimes in excitedly, “I got it, Boss. I got it. I’m on it. I’m f—ing on it!”
Trump congratulates the team again, saying he didn’t know anybody who wasn’t watching the game.
“And you’re going to be proud of that game for 50 years as you grow older,” he says. “It was amazing. We love you guys. And I hope to see you. Kash? Tuesday night. I’m gonna shake hands with everybody, but I gotta shake hands with that goalie.”
Matthew Tkachuk: “We’ll see you Tuesday night, Mr. President.”
Trump: “We’ll see you Tuesday night.”
Patel: “I’m driving the bus, Boss. We’re bringing them home.”
Later that night, after packing up but before heading home, the U.S. men’s and women’s teams hang out and celebrate in the dining hall back at the athletes’ village following the women’s team’s return from the closing ceremony, where Hilary Knight was the American flag-bearer.
“We were in the cafeteria at 3:30 in the morning with them,” Jack Hughes said. “We go from there, pack our bags, and we’re on the bus.”
But while they’re celebrating together, the tenor of the discussion outside that dining hall has taken a dramatic turn. For one, Patel’s involvement in the middle of the celebration has injected politics into the celebration, and becomes the latest flashpoint in America’s fractured political discourse. For another, Trump’s joke about having to invite the women’s team is seen by many as dismissive and demeaning, meant to diminish their historic accomplishment in comparison to that of the men.
In the aftermath, the men’s players repeatedly point out how close they are to the women’s team, and how much the two squads supported each other. But the way the men’s team laughed at Trump’s joke rankles fans across the country.
“We love the women’s team,” Matthews says a few days later. “We support them. I mean, the night we won the gold medal, we were hanging out in the dining hall until like three, four in the morning. … We have nothing but love and respect for the women’s team and what they were able to accomplish. And it’s amazing that the men’s and women’s ice hockey teams are both bringing home gold medals for the United States of America. And I think that should be talked about more than (Trump’s joke). But we’re extremely proud of them and happy for them and we support them 100 percent.”
The team flies to Miami in the morning. It was originally supposed to be a flight through New York, but a blizzard forced a change of plans.
USA Hockey releases a statement that the women’s team will not attend the State of the Union. “Due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments following the Games, the athletes are unable to participate. They were honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgement.”
About a dozen of the women’s players are later spotted on a commercial Delta flight from Atlanta to Minneapolis.
During the day, the White House shares an AI-doctored video on TikTok that has Brady Tkachuk calling the Canadians “maple syrup-eating f—s.” Tkachuk, of course, never said this.
