February 24, 2026
James Lang/Imagn Images
This was great. Kash Patel being in the locker room after was lame.
Jack Hughes, all alone, fired home the overtime winner, then took off sprinting down the ice, launching his helmet into orbit in pure jubilation.
His teammates, who had otherwise been NHL adversaries outside of these past few weeks, flooded off the bench in their red, white, and blue uniforms to swarm him in celebration.
Team USA, finally, had beaten Canada to win the gold medal in men's hockey.
The sting of past Olympic heartbreak, of Salt Lake City in 2002, of Sidney Crosby's golden goal in Vancouver in 2010, and even going back a year and just outside to Connor McDavid's own winner in the NHL's 4 Nations Face-Off last February, felt like it had washed away.
A group of American stars, at long last, broke through to stand alongside the Miracle team of 1980 and the legendary squad of 1960, while no doubt sparking the next generation of U.S. kids to come, much like those previous two gold medal teams did for their succeeding eras.
And that's what it was all about on the ice, as the hugs exchanged and the players skated around grinning ear-to-ear with the American flag draped over their shoulders.
Hughes, who made the gold medal run alongside his brother Quinn, talked about what the win meant for USA Hockey and all the kids watching at home who would be inspired to put on skates, all while he was still processing the rush of what they had just achieved.
Then Matthew Tkachuk and Zach Werenski, both former teammates of the late South Jersey hockey star Johnny Gaudreau, brought out the No. 13 jersey they kept for him in the locker room and took it for a victory lap across the rink. They found his wife and parents in the crowd, and had them bring his kids down to take the team picture with them.
It was a beautiful moment to honor a friend who really should've been there on the team with them, and celebrating with a gold medal around his neck, too.
And that should've been all anyone goes to whenever they think about this U.S. team, the brotherhood they formed, the dreams they inspired, the remembrance of one of their very best, Hughes' golden goal, and Connor Hellebuyck making the biggest saves of his life.
Maybe in due time, that all will be... hopefully...
Not now, though, unfortunately.
Because the U.S. team just couldn't help itself.
The team couldn't leave a storybook ending be.
They couldn't just keep it about them, about the sport, about even just a fleeting moment of unified American pride at a time when the country will probably never be more divided.
They had to have FBI director Kash Patel in the locker room — and not as someone who just happened to be there in the background. No, he was the star of the show; downing beers, flaunting a medal around his neck, pumping his fist and getting amped up like he was one of the boys, and getting Donald Trump on speaker phone.
Patel had to be there celebrating with the actual athletes who actually achieved something, when his job has major and immediately pressing obligations back here in the U.S. that he's been under continually heavy scrutiny for.
A source sent me this video of FBI Director Kash Patel partying with the US Men's Olympic Hockey team. pic.twitter.com/egjmdhOAF6
— William Turton (@WilliamTurton) February 22, 2026
They made their victory blatantly political. They invited politics with open arms into their locker room, following Patel's buddy and Team USA general manager Bill Guerin's lead, per The Athletic's Michael Russo.
Within an hour, the 2026 U.S. Men's Olympic hockey team muddied its own history.
And to what ends? Well, no one probably thought any of that through, and now, there are strings attached to a moment in American sports history that really shouldn't have any.
The memory of Team USA's victory, for no good reason, now comes with Patel making himself a main character within it, wearing a medal around his neck and shouting when he had absolutely nothing to do with it.
The memory of Team USA's victory now comes with Trump on the phone, inviting them to Tuesday night's State of the Union address, and with most of the room laughing when he remarks, "We're gonna have to bring the women's team, you do know that?" – You know, the women's team that dominated its tournament and beat Canada in overtime for gold, just like the men.
And the memory of Team USA's victory is going to come with whatever might happen Tuesday night, when most of the team will be in attendance for the State of the Union address – not the women's team, though. They declined their invitation. And not Brock Nelson, Jake Guentzel, Kyle Connor, Jackson LaCombe, and Jake Oettinger. They each reported back to their respective NHL teams.
Quite frankly, you just have to pray at this point that no one eggs anything further on. But you can't count on it, definitely not when going back further to the U.S.'s leaning into the "51st state" taunting toward Canada last year at the 4 Nations Face-Off.
The U.S. men's team just couldn't, and can't, help themselves.
Look, they did it. They really did. They finally won the gold medal, and in dramatic fashion. And everything up to the medal ceremony, as they all stood in unison and watched the American flag rise up to the top of the rafters, was beautiful.
And yes, modern sports is, to some degree, always political anymore, the Olympics have always been political, and that upset of the Russians at Lake Placid in 1980, absolutely, that was politically charged, too.
But there's a difference.
That 1980 team, they united people. They made Americans proud and turned so many of them into lifelong hockey fans. They brought people together, and somehow every member of that team onto that one little medal stand. They never gave anyone pause, or at worst, a line they had to bow out on.
This 2026 team, they went into the locker room, with cameras still rolling, and just had to pile on all this polarizing baggage to a moment, their moment, that should never have any hoops, any instances of "OK, but except for...," or any burying of your head in the sand to appreciate, to admire, to be inspired by.
But these guys really just could not help themselves.
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