Heated Rivalry fans have voiced their fury at the decision to have a controversial Team USA hockey star appear on this weekend’s episode of ‘Saturday Night Live’ – which will be hosted by one of the stars of the hit TV show.
It was confirmed on Thursday, via a Minnesota Wild broadcast, that Team USA star Quinn Hughes will appear on both ‘SNL’ and ‘The Tonight Show’ this weekend.
The news comes less than a week after Hughes – and his brother Jack – helped Team USA lift a historic gold medal in hockey after a thrilling 2-1 win over Canada.
However, the win was marred by the festivities that followed after the team came under scrutiny following a congratulatory phone call with president Donald Trump.
In a video of the joyous moment, Trump could be heard inviting them to both his State of the Union speech and the White House, before adding that ‘we are going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that.’
He then added that, if he didn’t invite them: ‘I do believe I would probably be impeached!’
The decision to have Team USA hockey star Quinn Hughes on this weekend’s episode of ‘Saturday Night Live’ has been met with major backlash
The episode is set to be hosted by Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie
Trump’s joke sparked contention after going viral online, with several commentators accusing him of misogyny before ripping into the Team USA men’s hockey team for laughing at the remarks.
With fans split over their opinions of the hockey stars, the decision to have Hughes appear on ‘SNL’ this weekend has been met with major uproar – given the fact that the episode will be hosted by Heated Rivalry star Connor Storrie.
Taking to X, one fan wrote: ‘SNL has a history of letting awful people on their show so I’m not even surprised just disappointed but I’m not gonna let it ruin Connor’s big night.’
‘Not on Connor’s SNL debut please. That’s just disrespectful,’ another fan said.
Meanwhile, one disgruntled user on X wrote: ‘This loser a** freak in the same room as MY Connor? Who the hell asked for that?’
In light of the backlash that Team USA’s men’s hockey stars received, the mother of Quinn and Jack Hughes issued a staunch defense over the viral moment.
When asked for her response to the comment, Ellen Hughes – a player development consultant for the women’s team – said on the TODAY show that ‘at the end of the day, it’s just about the country.’
‘These players, both the men and women, can bring so much unity to a group and to a country,’ Hughes added, via NBC News. ‘People that cheered on that don’t watch hockey, people that have politics on one side or on the other side, and that’s all both the men’s team and the women’s team care about.’
Team USA’s men’s hockey stars have come under fire after laughing at a ‘sexist’ joke
Donald Trump made a ‘misogynistic’ remark about the USA women’s team while calling the male stars to congratulate them on their Winter Olympics gold medal
Both the men and women’s hockey teams clinched gold medals for USA at the Milan-Cortina Games, with the latter also getting the better of an overtime battle with Canada last week.
Hughes’ son Jack, meanwhile, scored the game-winning goal as the men claimed their first gold medal since 1980.
‘It couldn’t have gone better,’ she continued. ‘Both teams going undefeated. We couldn’t have written a better story, and I hope everybody just understands what we did in the moment, both the men and the women to bring this country together and let everybody cheer in the same direction.’
Jack and Quinn also appeared on TODAY via video call to lift the lid on the relationship between the two teams.
‘I’m glad you brought up the women because it was amazing to spend some time with them, too,’ Quinn said. ‘And then obviously watch them, me and Jack were there, we watched them win the gold medal.’
‘They came to our game and were able to watch us,’ he added. ‘So just the support back and forth, just to get to know them a little better was special, too.’
