President Trump invited the US men’s Olympic hockey team to be his honored guests at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address following their dramatic 2-1 overtime victory over Canada in Sunday’s gold medal game.
“We’re giving the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night,” an audibly giddy Trump told the players on a postgame call facilitated by FBI Director Kash Patel in the Team USA locker room. “I could send a military plane or something, but if you would like to, it’s the coolest night –“
“We’re in,” one of the players said, while others chimed in: “Yeah, we’re in.”
“Can you pick us up in Miami on Tuesday morning?” asked another of the players, possibly Matthew Tkachuk of the Florida Panthers.
“We’ll get Kash and we’ll get the military to get you guys over,” Trump promised, adding: “The nice thing about being president is, I can tell you, you don’t have to worry about the weather or landing.”
Trump also suggested the team could visit the White House on Wednesday, the morning after his speech — “we’ll just have some fun, we have medals for you guys” — before telling them: “I must tell you, we have to bring the women’s team, you do know that.”
The US women’s hockey team defeated Canada by the same 2-1 score in overtime on Thursday, leaving the men to complete an American gold medal sweep for the first time since women’s hockey became an Olympic sport in 1998.
The president added that “I do believe I probably would be impeached” if he didn’t invite the women, to laughs of approval from the players.
“But anyway, if you could work that out, I would be honored to have you,” Trump told the players.
“Congratulations, that was an unbelievable game. I don’t know one person that wasn’t — everybody that called me [Sunday morning] said, ‘I’m watching the hockey.’ I don’t know of anybody that wasn’t, and you’re gonna be proud of that game for 50 years, as you grow older. I mean, it was amazing.
“So, we love you guys. Congratulations, and I hope to see you, Kash, Tuesday night.”
Earlier in the call, Trump raved about the performance of goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who stopped 41 of Canada’s 42 shots on goal in the victory.
“Your goalie played not bad,” the president said, to cheers in the locker room.
“Helly, say hi to him,” one player urged, with Hellebuyck obliging: “How you doing, Don?”
“I’ve seen hockey goalies have slightly worse games,” Trump continued, adding that the performance was “unbelievable.”
Near the end of the call, the president added that “I’m gonna shake hands with everybody, but I gotta shake hands with that goalie.”
“We’ll see you Tuesday night, Mr. President,” Patel said to wrap up the call. “I’m driving the bus, boss.”
It was not immediately clear how many players would be able to take Trump up on his offer.
The National Hockey League resumes games Wednesday night after a 20-day break for the Winter Games, with golden goalscorer Jack Hughes’ New Jersey Devils, Hellebuyck’s Winnipeg Jets and Team USA captain Auston Matthews’ Toronto Maple Leafs among those in action.
“I think there’s a lot of moving parts as far as our travels back home,” Matthews told reporters after the celebration. “We’ll kind of see what happens, but obviously it’s an honor to wear this jersey and to represent the US.”
Sunday marked the first time the American men had won a hockey gold medal since the 1980 “Miracle on Ice” at Lake Placid, NY. It was also the first time the US had won an Olympic tournament outside their home nation after the 1960 team won gold at Squaw Valley, Calif.
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