There wasn’t much that was normal about Team USA winning gold at the Milan Olympics. It was the first time in over a decade that NHL players competed at the Winter Games, providing the world an opportunity to see how far U.S. hockey had come in development, and how much it had caught up to Canada. That wasn’t normal. The United States beat a loaded Canada team stacked with the world’s best players, primarily by utilizing team play and counter-offense. That wasn’t normal. They partied in the locker room with the director of the FBI after the game, and gleefully giggled at President Trump’s sexist joke. Sadly, that was normal — par for the course for a sport often at odds between the players who compete, and those the NHL is trying to court as fans.
In one fell swoop Team USA managed to alienate a huge portion of the current NHL fanbase in the United States, undermine many of the initiatives the league has been trying to make, and turn off the precise segment of the sports market hockey has been trying so desperately to gain. A potentially legendary bag-fumbling by stars of a sport who have a vested interest in seeing it grow in popularity, increasing reach and revenue in the process.
To be clear: The issue isn’t that Team USA took a celebratory phone call from the President of the United States. That has been happening for decades, and it’s woven into the fabric of the Olympics. Where this all got profoundly bizarre was both the nature of the team’s call with Trump, and their partying with FBI director Kash Patel — who was in the locker room for … reasons? The official government line is that Patel was there to conduct business in Milan, though it’s unclear what business the director of domestic federal law enforcement had to do in Italy, on a Sunday, during the Olympic games, or why it necessitated him attending a sporting event and chugging beers with the team afterwards.
Then there was the call with the President, which contained the normal pleasantries you’d expect — before taking a distinct turn. Trump invited the U.S. men’s team to attend the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, even offering to send a military jet to pick them up, which they gleefully accepted as a group. The players then laughed at Trump’s sexist joke warning that he’ll begrudgingly “have to invite the women’s team” or “they might impeach me.” The United States women’s team won gold, also beating Canada in the final, but were relegated to a punchline. This was shortly followed by an unidentified Team USA player audibly requesting the president to “close the northern border,” embracing the isolationist stance the United States has taken under Trump.
Let’s briefly appreciate that everyone in the Team USA locker room was partying to patriotic music and screaming about the “red, white, and blue” while drinking Corona (a beer originally from Mexico) and Michelob Ultra — both of which are owned by the Belgian company InBev. Nothing says “U-S-A, U-S-A” like getting down with European-owned corporate beer instead of anything brewed by one of the 9,796 U.S.-owned and operated breweries.
In recent years, the NHL has become more aware of what it actually is and less concerned with aspirational fantasy. Hockey will never compete in the United States with football or basketball. There are dozens of socioeconomic and social reasons why, but at its heart, hockey is fundamentally a Canadian winter sport that has been adopted and spread throughout the United States. This is having a phenomenal impact in non-traditional markets, but there’s an emphasis here on “non-traditional.” Instead of trying to carve off football and basketball viewers, the NHL has been marketing itself to non-sports fans, emphasizing women, supporting the LGBTQ+ community with Pride Nights, and making substantial inroads with Gen Z as a result.
The most mainstream attention the sport of hockey has gotten in the last two decades occurred right before the Winter Olympics, as the HBO series Heated Rivalry became one of the hottest new shows of 2025 while exploring a fictional romantic relationship between two rival NHL players. Call me presumptuous, but I don’t think there’s a big piece of the Venn diagram that crosses over “Donald Trump Fan” and “Gay Hockey Love Story Fan.”
It’s important to note that Team USA is not a monolith. Videos from the locker room do appear that it was an ultra-MAGA love-fest in Milan, but several players on the national team have either been apolitical or publicly discussed the need for inclusiveness in hockey. Zach Werenski of the Columbus Blue Jackets spoke about the effect of Heated Rivalry after Team USA’s opening win over Latvia.
“Everyone is saying how great it is, I just haven’t seen it yet. It’s definitely good for the sport of hockey. Whenever you can add more eyes to the game and have people talk about the game and talk about inclusivity, I think it’s just great for the sport.”
While Olympic hero Jack Hughes, who not only scored the game-winning overtime goal, but gave us the iconic photo of his toothless grin and bloodied face, spoke in 2024 about why Pride Nights in the NHL are important to him, and why he wouldn’t participate in any Pride Night boycotts, as some locker rooms in the NHL did.
“The team I play for, the Devils, we really support that, and we’re a really welcoming organization, so I think a bunch of guys on our team were really looking forward to that. With how we grew up, our family really supports that too. I can’t speak for other teams, but I know in New Jersey that was a night that everyone on our team was really welcoming, and they know it’s really important, so it wasn’t even a thought not to do it for us.”
The gold medal-winning team had a roster that was largely defined by two sets of brothers: Matthew and Brady Tkachuk, as well as Jack and Quinn Hughes. The former born in Arizona with a decorated NHL father, the latter in Florida to non-NHL athletes. The Tkachuk brothers have largely become the face of Team USA, getting the lion’s share of coverage during the games — and truthfully, having them be the face of U.S. hockey is a little like having the Gronkowski Bros being representative of all football players. It’s a similar vibe, and also why it’s so unsurprising that the Tkachuks were front-and-center, embracing Kash Patel and partying with him — it’s their aesthetic.
While Team USA partying with Patel and fawning over Trump might play well on X, it doesn’t appeal to the prime demographic who are actually watching hockey on a regular basis. Currently, 86% of digital hockey viewers are from Gen Z and 51% of new fans are women, which is the highest in men’s North American pro sports. These same demographics are running away from the MAGAsphere in droves. In addition, there’s as much of a chance that hardcore Trump fans will start watching hockey because of this as there was a chance of them actually following through on boycotting the NFL. It’s just not going to happen.
We’re left with a sport that’s at odds with itself, during a time of momentous change. A new generation of young, diverse fans running headfirst into a sport that has often held a reputation for being insular, tribal, exclusionary, and prejudiced. Team USA’s celebration was everything the NHL has been trying to push against, now it’s on full display.
Like it or not, the gold medal win is now synonymous with Donald Trump’s policy and politics. There’s no doubt the NHL hates this, a lot.
