Fans of the intense Heated Rivalry series are expressing outrage over the decision to feature a contentious Team USA hockey star in this weekend’s “Saturday Night Live,” which will also be hosted by a popular actor from a hit television show.
Announced during a Minnesota Wild broadcast on Thursday, it was revealed that Quinn Hughes, a standout player from Team USA, will make appearances on both “SNL” and “The Tonight Show” this weekend.
This announcement comes hot on the heels of Hughes and his brother Jack’s recent triumph, where they played pivotal roles in securing a gold medal for Team USA in hockey, following a nail-biting 2-1 victory over Canada.
During the celebration of their victory, a recorded moment captured former President Trump inviting the team to both his State of the Union address and the White House, humorously noting that “we are going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that.”
Trump went on to jest that if he failed to extend the invitation, “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
However, this light-hearted comment quickly became a point of contention online, with many commentators accusing Trump of misogyny and criticizing the men’s hockey team for their laughter in response to the joke.
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.’
