This weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live was hockey-themed as Connor Storrie, co-star of the hit hockey romance series, “Heated Rivalry,” served as host.
As part of Storrie’s opening monologue, Team USA gold-medal winners in men’s and women’s ice hockey, Hilary Knight, Megan Keller, Jack Hughes, and Quinn Hughes, joined Storrie on stage. After joking with the Hughes brothers about them not understanding the concept of his TV show, the women’s players were brought out to poke fun at what became a hot-button topic surrounding the men’s team after their gold-medal victory last week.
Knight and Keller’s appearance drew a noticeably louder pause for cheering from the crowd than the two gold-medal-winning brothers.
“Don’t worry, we saw your show,” Keller opened.
“Oh, wow, Hilary, Megan, it’s so cool that we’re all here,” Storrie replied.
“It was gonna be just us, but we thought we’d invite the guys, too,” Knight said to a raucous reaction.
“Yeah, we thought we’d give them a little moment to shine,” Keller said.
Knight and Keller’s joke was a reference to the U.S. men’s congratulatory call from President Donald Trump in their locker room just moments after Jack had scored the Golden Goal in overtime to down Team Canada. During the call, Trump invited the Olympic champions to his State of the Union Address in Washington, DC, and added that he “had to” also invite the similarly accomplished USA women’s team.
In response, the U.S. men laughed at what seemed to be Trump’s attempt at degrading the women’s team’s gold-medal achievement. The moment, caught on video, spread like wildfire on social media, with many lambasting the men’s team for laughing at what appeared to be a sexist joke from Trump, who has a long history of sexist remarks.
Some members of the men’s team, such as goaltender Jeremy Swayman and defenseman Charlie McAvoy, have expressed regret for the team’s collective reaction. Others, like the Hughes brothers, have not taken back the team’s locker-room laughter, instead answering questions with remarks like “it is what it is” and complaining that the situation has been politicized.
“I think this is just a really good learning point to really focus on, you know, how we talk about women,” Knight recently told ESPN. “Not only in sport, but in industry. Women aren’t less than, and our achievements shouldn’t be overshadowed by anything else other than how great they are.”
The segment then continued with Storrie referencing Team USA’s dueling men’s and women’s gold medal achievement, the first in U.S. Olympic hockey history.
“My show speaks to people who are not always represented in hockey, so this is really great to have actual hockey legends here tonight,” Storrie said. “I mean, both of your teams just won the gold.”
“Thanks, the last time the men did that was 46 years ago,” Quinn Hughes replied.
“And the last time we did that was two whole Olympics ago,” Knight quipped to more laughter.
“Nice burn, but these gold medals aren’t just for us, they’re for all hockey fans, yours, too,” Jack Hughes answered.
The segment ended with all five of them putting their arms around each other, and Storrie throwing to a commercial break. The rest of Saturday night’s episode had one more hockey reference, as Storrie reunited with “Heated Rivalry” co-star Hudson Williams in a skit titled “Ice Skating.”
In the skit, a couple, played by Tommy Brennan and Veronika Slowikowska, discuss a marriage proposal at an outdoor ice rink, only to be interrupted by a group of rowdy guys, played by Storrie, Williams, Mikey Day, and Ben Marshall, celebrating a bachelor party.
The four attending hockey players later joined Storrie, Williams, and the rest of the SNL cast to close out the episode.
Knight and Keller, who wore U.S. jerseys earlier in the night, changed into their Seattle Torrent and Boston Fleet PWHL jerseys.
Knight’s trip to New York City for the show was a relatively easy one, as she was recently placed on long-term injured reserve by the Torrent. Meanwhile, Keller had to race cross-country after playing in the Fleet’s 3-2 shootout win in Ottawa earlier in the day.
Jack Hughes had also played earlier on Saturday, flying home with the rest of the New Jersey Devils after a 3-1 road win over the St. Louis Blues. Quinn Hughes was off on Saturday after he and the Minnesota Wild completed a back-to-back against the Colorado Avalanche and Utah Mammoth on Thursday and Friday.
