SNL Uses Surprise Team USA Hockey Cameos To Slip In A Sharp President Jab — And The Crowd Reaction Says Everything

Saturday Night Live got players from both the men’s and women’s Team USA hockey teams to make a cameo… then cracked a joke about the political tension.USA brought home the gold in men’s and women’s hockey. For the first time ever, both programs won gold at the Winter Olympics in the same year. That should be the headline, and that alone should be a uniter. But instead, the whole moment has become politicized.

director Kash Patel partying in the locker room with the men’s team after they took down Canada in the gold medal game. Just the presence of someone from the government that’s often associated with President Trump got people up in arms.

However, the main problem was actually a call that the POTUS made to the men’s team shortly after they won gold. In it, President Trump congratulated the men’s team on winning it all, then he jokingly said he’d “have to invite the women’s team” to the White House too.

Because of that, showing support for one team has effectively turned into disrespecting the other. Happy for the men’s team? Shame on you. Happy for the women’s team only? Then you aren’t a patriot. In a moment where America should have come together and embraced the USA’s collective success at the Winter Olympics… the whole thing has turned into a side-picking contest.

Even sports personality Pat McAfee found himself in the middle of it all, and he recently used the platform of his show to condemn the divisiveness.

Sure enough, SNL didn’t just reference the current Team USA hockey discourse… they went out and got some of the players to make appearances. Brothers and Team USA teammates Jack and Quinn Hughes came out first, and cracked a couple of jokes about Storrie’s show and actual hockey. The Hughes Brother said they’ve been so busy that they never got a chance to watch Storrie’s forbidden romance show.

Storrie then said “well I hope some hockey players watched it.”

That acted as the cue for Team USA stars Hilary Knight and Megan Keller to enter onto the stage, and they quickly delivered the punchline, telling Connor Storrie not to worry… they’ve watched the show. Then came the joke directed at the political division – and President Trump.

SNL‘s host said it was so great to have everyone on stage, and that he was glad that representatives from the women’s Team USA hockey team could make it. That when Team USA captain, Hilary Knight, responded with this:

“It was gonna be just us, but we thought we’d invite the guys too.”

And then after a long laugh and applause break, Megan Keller added one more jab at the current situation (and administration) by saying this:

“Yeah, we thought we’d give them a little moment to shine.”

And leading up to the most recent episode of SNL, there was an expectation that the long-running sketch comedy show would at least reference the men’s and women’s hockey situation. That’s mainly because the host of Saturday Night Live was Connor Storrie, who is one of the stars in the breakout HBO Max show Heated Rivalry. Surely you’ve heard about that hockey show, right? If you haven’t… look it up.

Storrie’s monologue also went on to point out that the men’s team hadn’t won gold in hockey in 46 years, and that the women’s team had more recently won in 2018.

Obviously, that whole bit was poking at President Trump’s “I have to invite the women’s team” remarks. That might ruffle some feathers… but I’m going to choose to just be happy that the men’s and women’s programs have come together for something when everything and everyone else have seemingly tried to pit them against one another.