America’s Olympic hockey stars will be making cameos across two of NBC’s biggest shows following their gold-medal winning performances in Milan.
Team USA defenseman and Minnesota Wild star Quinn Hughes will appear on this weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live before flying back to St. Paul for Sunday’s matinee against the visiting St. Louis Blues, according to The Athletic.
The elder Hughes brother will then make a return trip to New York for Monday’s Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, where he’ll be joined by his brother and Olympic teammate, Jack, as well as Team USA women’s captain, Hilary Knight. Quinn will then fly back to St. Paul for Tuesday’s game against visiting Tampa Bay, pushing his total travel to nearly 13,000 miles since leaving Milan.
Both teams won Olympic gold at the Milan Cortina Winter Games with an overtime victory over rival Canada in the finals.
And all three players are credited with key goals during the Olympics: Knight’s equalizer in the final set up Megan Keller’s golden goal, Quinn’s overtime winner against Sweden in the semis propelled Team USA to Sunday’s final, and his younger brother Jack’s overtime winner against the Canadians secured America’s third ever Olympic gold in men’s hockey.
Knight’s appearance alongside the Hughes brothers comes after uproar over a joke President Donald Trump made to the men’s team during a locker-room conference call on Sunday.
Quinn (left) and Jack Hughes (right) are pictured after winning gold over Team Canada
Hilary Knight makes an appearance on the NBC Today Show after winning Olympic gold
While inviting the American men to celebrate their Olympic win in Washington, Trump cautioned ‘we’re going to have to bring the women’s team’ before saying he ‘would be impeached’ if he didn’t.
Although many men’s players were seen laughing at Trump’s dismissive quip, Knight and other members of the women’s team have been quick to defend their male counterparts.
‘I think there’s a genuine level of support there and respect,’ Knight told ESPN, while referring to Trump’s joke as ‘distasteful.’
Teammate Abbey Murphy told the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast she has no concerns about how the men’s team responded to Trump. In fact, she said, she saw men’s players celebrating the women’s gold medal during the locker-room call with the President.
‘You hear someone in the back of the phone call yell “two for two,”‘ she said. ‘We never felt anything bad from them…It’s sad they even have to apologize for anything.’
But several men’s players have expressed regret over their reactions, including Boston Bruins teammates Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman.
‘Certainly sorry for how we responded to it in that moment,’ the Bruins defenseman told assembled media in Boston on Thursday after returning from Team USA’s gold-medal celebration in Washington. ‘You know, things just happened really quick there.’
Trump made his joke on a speaker phone on the Team USA locker room after Sunday’s win
Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman admitted the men’s players should have reacted differently
Charlie McAvoy is seen entering the House Chamber ahead of Trump’s speech on Tuesday
Swayman shared a similar sentiment with reporters a day earlier.
‘We should’ve reacted differently,’ Swayman told reporters in Boston on Wednesday. ‘We know that we are so excited for the women’s team. We have so much respect for the women’s team, and to share that gold medal with them is something that we’re forever grateful for.
‘You know, now that we’re home, we get to share that together forever and see the incredible support that we have from the USA, and sharing this incredible gold medal,’ he added.
Jack, a star center for the New Jersey Devils, recently dismissed the controversy, insisting the men’s and women’s players are ‘tight.’
Trump’s White House also invited the women’s team to Washington, but the squad declined, citing scheduling conflicts.
