The U.S. women&#8217;s hockey team, which won gold against Canada earlier this week, said on Monday that the players could not attend President Donald Trump&#8217;s State of the Union address, citing &#8220;previously scheduled academic and professional commitments.&#8221;
Trump invited the U.S. women&#8217;s and men&#8217;s hockey teams to attend his address on Tuesday night after both teams brought home the gold medal, with each team taking down arch-nemesis Canada in overtime. While not yet official, the men&#8217;s hockey team appeared excited to make the trip to Capitol Hill for Trump&#8217;s address. The women&#8217;s team, however, said that &#8220;the athletes are unable to participate.&#8221;
&#8220;We are sincerely grateful for the invitation extended to our gold medal–winning U.S. Women’s Hockey Team and deeply appreciate the recognition of their extraordinary achievement,&#8221; a USA Hockey spokesman said, according to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/us-womens-hockey-team-declines-trumps-invitation-state-union-rcna260299">NBC News</a>.
The women&#8217;s team dominated during the Olympics, allowing just two goals throughout the entire tournament. Despite blowing past Canada in the preliminary round 5-0, the U.S. women found themselves trailing late against Canada in the gold-medal game. In a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/revenge-served-cold-team-usa-takes-gold-over-canada-in-olympic-sudden-death-overtime">thrilling finish</a>, Hilary Knight tied the game with just two minutes left before Megan Keller scored the game-winner in sudden-death overtime to lift the U.S. women past Canada.
A State of the Union invite is a rare honor, as members of Congress, as well as the speaker and the president, are afforded a very limited number of guests. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on Monday that officials were working to &#8220;figure out logistics&#8221; for the House to host both teams, which would include dozens of players and coaches, POLITICO <a href="https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2026/02/23/congress/usa-hockey-teams-sotu-00793130">reported</a>.
“There’s no way to have special guests on the floor because it’s a literal session of Congress,” he said. “But we’re going to work and do what we can to accommodate.”
After the United States won its first gold medal in men&#8217;s hockey since 1980 on Sunday, Trump spoke to the team over the phone and invited them to the State of the Union.
&#8220;I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that,&#8221; Trump told the men&#8217;s team after its victory over Canada. He joked that if he didn&#8217;t also invite the women&#8217;s team, &#8220;I do believe I probably would be impeached.&#8221;
The U.S. men&#8217;s team, most of whom were chugging beers alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, was ecstatic when Trump spoke to them over the phone in the locker room.
&#8220;We&#8217;re giving the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night. I could send a military plane or something if you would like to,&#8221; Trump said. Some of the players then replied, stating, &#8220;We&#8217;re in!&#8221;
&#8220;If you could work that out, I would be honored to have you all,&#8221; Trump added.
The men&#8217;s team flew back to the United States on Monday, arriving in Miami after their flight was rerouted due to the massive winter storm in the Northeast. Star forward Matthew Tkachuk told reporters that the team would spend the day in Miami before flying to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Asked if they would attend the State of the Union, Tkachuk replied, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what our plan is yet.&#8221;
Tkachuk said &#8220;it was an honor&#8221; to get a call from Trump after the gold-medal victory.
&#8220;We&#8217;re definitely honored to represent him and hundreds of millions across the country, bringing a gold medal back,&#8221; he added.

Ice Hockey – Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics: Day 13

Two Gold-Medal Teams, Two Very Different Responses To Trump’s Invitation

Donald Trump

General

Hockey

State of the Union

Team USA

U.S.

Winter Olympics

Women's Hockey

In another overtime nail-biter for the United States, the women&#8217;s hockey team defeated Canada to capture their third Olympic gold medal.
Since women&#8217;s hockey made its Olympic debut in 1998, only Canada and the United States have won gold in the event, and this year was no exception. The rivalry was on full display in the arena Thursday when the teams competed in the finals for the seventh time — with Canada having won five of them. But this year, it was America’s turn.
After a scoreless opening period, Kristin O&#8217;Neill broke the deadlock for Canada and they took the 1-0 lead into the third. The gold was just within reach.
The arena then erupted when Hilary Knight tied the game 1-1 — adding to her own <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/olympics/news/2026-winter-olympics-hilary-knight-usa-womens-hockey-scoring-record-canada/">Olympic resume</a> — with just two minutes remaining in regulation. When the third period ended, the teams headed to 3-on-3 sudden-death overtime, a 20-minute period played until the first goal.
But overtime didn’t last long. Just four minutes into the extra frame, Megan Keller danced around Claire Thompson and flipped the puck past goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens for the game-winner.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-media-max-width="560">
TEAM USA TAKES GOLD 🥇
Megan Keller wins it in overtime, helping the U.S. to a 2-1 victory over Canada.
🎥 <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCOlympics?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NBCOlympics</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WinterOlympics?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WinterOlympics</a><a href="https://t.co/1xXQvOnNII">pic.twitter.com/1xXQvOnNII</a>
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheAthletic/status/2024590684347679030?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 19, 2026</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Team USA dominated throughout the tournament until Canada pushed them into a tightly contested championship &#8212; but it just wasn&#8217;t enough to derail the Americans.
&#8220;It was a hard-fought game. Canada gave us their best and they&#8217;re an incredible team. Their goaltending was outstanding. A lot of offense, a lot of great defense, so it was hard,&#8221; Keller <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/live-blogs/usa-vs-canada-live-score-womens-hockey-gold-medal-winter-olympics/2oxlnbLTdsUN/">said</a> after the game. &#8220;But really proud of the way our group stuck together. We fought to get into OT and just happy to finish it off.&#8221;
The rival win must feel extra sweet this year, since the last Winter Games in 2022 resulted in a silver medal against Canada. But for six of Team USA&#8217;s players, including Knight, who has said these Olympic games will be her last, this is their second gold medal.
As for the men’s hockey team, they will compete against Slovakia in the semifinals on Friday. If they win, they have a shot at competing — possibly against Canada — to win their first Olympic gold since 1980.

Revenge Served Cold: Team USA Takes Gold Over Canada In Olympic Sudden-Death Overtime

Sports

World

Hilary Knight had a historic performance over the weekend for Team USA Women&#8217;s Hockey. With her goal in the 5-0 shutout of Finland at the 2026 Winter Olympics, Knight tied the all-time Team USA record in the Olympics with 14 career goals.
Knight scored the team&#8217;s fourth goal of the day Saturday to notch the top spot in Team USA&#8217;s history books, and the captain didn&#8217;t even know she was close to tying the record.
Knight is now in the company of retired United States players Natalie Darwitz and Katie King for the goals record.
&#8220;I had no idea. I just love scoring, and that pure elation of finding the back of the net. It’s a little-kid moment. When you score, it’s pure excitement,&#8221; Knight <a href="https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/hilary-knight-ties-us-olympic-goals-record-finland-shutout">said</a> after the victory. &#8220;Those are legendary players and just to be in the same sentence as them is super special.&#8221;
The 36-year-old scored her first Olympic goal at 20 during the 2010 Vancouver Games. Now in her final Olympics, she can set a new scoring record in Italy.
Her teammate Megan Keller, who had the assist on Knight&#8217;s goal on Saturday, told NBC she is cheering Knight on all the way to the record books.
&#8220;I want her to score more than anyone else,&#8221; Keller said. &#8220;I thought she was going to have it in the third period, she had a good look, but there’s no doubt she is going to break that record any time now.&#8221;
This goal-scoring record would be the second one set at the Olympics for Knight. After stepping on the ice for Team USA&#8217;s first match of the Games, Knight became the first United States hockey player to compete in five Winter Olympics.
But wait — there&#8217;s more. With group play underway and Team USA being the favorite to win it all, Knight could also break the United States Olympic points record. Right now, Knight sits at 29, three points behind Jenny Potter&#8217;s all-time leading point total of 32.
The shutout against Finland marked the 16th time the United States Women&#8217;s Hockey team recorded a shutout during the Olympics.
No time to slow down now. Monday afternoon, Team USA takes on Switzerland in another group-play game. The United States is a 6.5-goal favorite against No. 5-ranked Switzerland.
&#8220;We can definitely get better,&#8221; Knight said. &#8220;There are definitely things that we can work on.&#8221;
Team USA cannot overlook the Swiss matchup, which could be easy to do with arch-rival Canada on the schedule for Tuesday, February 10.
The puck drops for Team USA and Switzerland Monday at 2:40 p.m. ET.

Credit: Sarah Stier via Getty Images

USA’s Hilary Knight Ties Olympic Record, Chases Hockey History

Olympics

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics feels distant, wrong, and inconsequential. 
Now, it just feels bizarre. 
The women’s hockey match between Russia and Canada was delayed nearly 65 minutes due to the Canadian team refusing to leave the locker room as Russia’s day-before COVID-19 tests had yet to be processed. Both teams eventually reached an agreement in order to take the ice, with both hockey teams playing in N95 masks for the majority of the game. 
The Candians won 6-1, and wore their masks for the entirety of the game, while the Russian squad removed their masks at the start of the third period after their COVID-19 test results were returned. 
&#8220;With a view to ensure full understanding of the teams about the health and safety measures in place, the start of the preliminary round game between Canada and ROC was delayed by an hour,&#8221; the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/ice-hockey-canada-roc-game-hold-2022-02-07/">said</a> in a statement.
&#8220;Out of caution and concern for the health and safety of the players, the IIHF agreed with the participating teams to play with masks on,&#8221; the statement continued. 
Last week, Russia’s women’s hockey team was hit with a COVID-19 outbreak, with six players being forced to quarantine after testing positive for the virus. 
&#8220;We aren’t in contact with anyone in the Olympic Village,&#8221; Russian head coach Evgeny Bobariko <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/ice-hockey-six-russian-womens-players-isolation-after-positive-covid-tests-2022-02-03/">said</a>. &#8220;Nobody goes anywhere.”
&#8220;Everyone sits in their rooms, food is brought to them,” he continued. “We only leave our rooms to get tested. We are not allowed to use the elevator, everyone goes down using the stairs.&#8221;
In October, organizers of the Winter Games announced that athletes will be in a “closed loop” in order to allow the games to go on without a hiccup. 
“All participants of the Games and our Chinese staff and volunteers will implement the same policy,” Beijing 2022 organizing committee official Zhang Jiandong <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/beijing-confirms-strict-closed-loop-winter-olympics-80808543">said</a>. “They will be strictly separated from the external society.”
Athletes that break protocol will face repercussions, such as expulsion from the Games. 
“Those who do not comply with the epidemic prevention regulations may face severe consequences such as warning, temporary or permanent cancellation of registration, temporary or permanent disqualification or expulsion from the competition, and other punishment,” Zhang said.
Testing was required before athletes arrived in Beijing, and participants are also subject to daily testing throughout their time in China. 
“We want everyone at the Games to be safe, that’s why we’re asking all participants to follow these guidelines,” IOC Olympic Games Executive Director Christophe Dubi <a href="https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/32470994/2022-winter-olympic-athletes-daily-tests-covid-19-remain-closed-loop-games-venues">said</a> in a statement.
With the win, Canada improved to 3-0 in Group A play, while Russia fell to 1-2. 
&#8220;Russia&#8217;s results from this morning weren&#8217;t back in yet,&#8221; Canada forward Natalie Spooner said before the game.
&#8220;I know in the past few days they&#8217;ve had a few positives and we just wanted to make sure their results came back and we were safe to play,&#8221; Spooner <a href="https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/ice-hockey-canada-roc-game-hold-2022-02-07/">continued</a>.
Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to sports@dailywire.com.

Beijing 2022 Olympics: women’s ice hockey group stage, ROC vs Canada

Russian, Canadian Women’s Hockey Teams Wear N95 Masks During Game Due To COVID-19 Results Delay

Beijing Olympics

Canada

Russia

On Monday, for the third straight time, a men&#8217;s junior A hockey team defeated Canada&#8217;s women&#8217;s hockey team, which is preparing for the Olympics.
The latest defeat for Canada&#8217;s women&#8217;s hockey team came at the hands of the Drumheller Dragons, who shut out the women’s team 8-0.
“Adam Raesler scored a hat trick for the Alberta Junior Hockey League side, while Luke Fennig added a pair of goals. Ty Daneault, Grayson Dietrich and Ty Whitford all scored singles for the men&#8217;s junior A club,” <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/canadian-women-hockey-team-lose-3rd-straight-game-against-men-junior-a-team-1.6216140">CBC</a> reported. “Canada&#8217;s Kristen Campbell stopped 19 of 22 shots in two periods of work and Emerance Maschmeyer six saves in relief. Eric Ward saved all five shots he faced in 29 minutes of play for the Dragons and Garrett Fuller finished out the game, making six stops.”
It is not the first time that star female athletes have lost to lower ranked men.
In 2017, legendary tennis champion John McEnroe was pilloried after suggesting that if Serena Willams, whom he acknowledged was the “best female player ever,” “played the men’s circuit she’d be like 700 in the world.”
In an interview with Lulu Garcia-Navarro the exchange went like this:
<blockquote>Lulu Garcia-Navarro: We’re talking about male players but there is of course wonderful female players. Let’s talk about Serena Williams. You say she is the best female player in the world in the book.
McEnroe: Best female player ever — no question.
Garcia-Navarro: Some wouldn’t qualify it, some would say she’s the best player in the world. Why qualify it?
McEnroe: Oh! Uh, she’s not, you mean, the best player in the world, period?
Garcia-Navarro: Yeah, the best tennis player in the world. You know, why say female player?
McEnroe: Well because if she was in, if she played the men’s circuit she’d be like 700 in the world.
Garcia-Navarro: You think so?
McEnroe: Yeah. That doesn’t mean I don’t think Serena is an incredible player. I do, but the reality of what would happen would be I think something that perhaps it’d be a little higher, perhaps it’d be a little lower. And on a given day, Serena could beat some players. I believe because she’s so incredibly strong mentally that she could overcome some situations where players would choke ’cause she’s been in it so many times, so many situations at Wimbledon, The U.S. Open, etc. But if she had to just play the circuit — the men’s circuit — that would be an entirely different story.</blockquote>
Amid the storm of criticism of McEnroe, GQ <a href="https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/john-mcenroe-serena-williams">reported</a>, “Serena duly Tweeted a response, asking McEnroe to ‘please please keep me out of your statements that are not factually based’ and ‘Respect me and my privacy.’”
USA Today <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/tennis/aus/2017/01/21/serena-williams-nicole-gibbs-australian-open/96876832/">recalled</a> in 2017 what happened when Serena Williams and her sister Venus boasted as teens in 1998 to the men’s ATP office they could defeat any tour player ranked around the top 200.
<blockquote>It just so happened that Karsten Braasch of Germany, once a top-40 player, but at the time ranked 203rd, was in ear shot. He thought it would be fun so stepped up to say he’d be happy to take them on.
The date was set and the day arrived. Braasch played a warmup round of golf in the morning, then came to Melbourne Park. The threesome went out to a back court where each sister would have a one-set shot at Braasch. Word had spread around the grounds that the event was taking place, which caused tournament officials to restrict admittance to the area to only those with badges.
Braasch would smoke cigarettes and sip beer during the changeovers, and to be honest no longer looked the part of a fit professional athlete. It made no matter. Braasch led 5-0 over Serena before winning the set 6-1, and then posted a 6-2 set victory over Venus.</blockquote>
A previous version of this article misspelled the name of the journalist. She is Lulu Garcia-Navarro, not Garica-Navarro.

United States v Canada

Canada’s Olympic Women’s Hockey Team Loses Third Straight Against Men’s Junior A Hockey Teams

After a brouhaha erupted between the National Women&#8217;s Hockey League and Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy released a video in which he blasted Nardini’s critics, telling them to “grow a pair.”
Nardini has been an avowed supporter of the league, even having Metropolitan Riveters players Kelly Babstock and Rebecca Russo on her Token CEO podcast, but some people in the hockey community wanted the league to eschew doing business with Barstool Sports, claiming Barstool had a history that made them unacceptable.
On Monday, Nardini posted a video dedicated to &#8220;the haters&#8221; that showed tweets and social media posts criticizing Barstool, while at the same time referencing her desire to own a team herself. Nardini wrote, “I’m not going to go anywhere; I’m going to root for them every single day, and I hope more people do too,” adding, “Everybody knows I want to buy a team. You want to help me buy a team?”
NWHL commissioner Tyler Tumminia reacted, “There is no circumstance where it would be acceptable to call out many of the reporters, staff members and fans who have given so much to women’s hockey, especially knowing that these people could be targeted or harassed on social media,” <a href="https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/30784447/national-women-hockey-league-criticizes-barstool-sports-ceo-video-post">ESPN</a> reported. Several NWHL players also slammed Mardini, with one reportedly saying Barstool Sports was “white supremacist.”
Portnoy stated in his video:
<blockquote>Okay. Emergency press conference time. I didn’t want to do this, and I was thinking I wasn’t going to do it because most people probably don’t even know what I’m about to talk about is going on, and I’ll only draw more attention to it, and the people who don’t like us will drag us, but I have to come to the defense of Erika Nardini.
So obviously, she’s our CEO, the best hire I’ve ever made, has taken Barstool Sports in 2016 from a $15 million dollar company to close to a billion dollar company. The only human, I honestly believe this, in the world who could have done that. Not only one of the most powerful, best executives in sports, the best [executive] in business.
Our company, while called sexist, chauvinistic, whatever you want to call it, being led by a female, a female CFO, a female CRO, so three of the top four executives, outside of me, all female. But we’re “sexist,” we’re just “doing it for looks,” having basically an entire female executive board take us from a small company to one of the most successful media companies in the world, but we’re just doing it for show. Whatever.
Erika, who led this, who led this revolution, this charge, this success story, also passionate about hockey. Loves it. Plays it. Supports it. Invested in it, probably the number one supporter of a league called the National Women’s Hockey League. The NWHL. You probably didn’t know it existed. The only reason I know it existed — don’t let the headlines fool you — is because in 2013, a girl named Denna Laing got a spinal cord injury playing in the Winter Classic in Boston, and guess what company drew attention to it and raised $100,000 and brought more attention and more money to the cause? We did.
Whatever, I digress. I’m just showing we’ve supported this league before and women’s hockey before. This isn’t a new thing.
For Erika, though, she has dove two feet into it; wants to buy a team; she has players on her podcast, token CEO. She has talked with management; she’s been as involved and as instrumental as any person in this league getting it attention.
You’d think a league that barely anybody knows about would welcome that, crave that.
Well, they have — until this weekend, when a couple of female journalists who cover the league, out of the clouds, took shots at Erika. Blatant shots. Being like, “We don’t want this woman; she’s trash; she’s racist; she’s sexist.” There’s an article on Deadspin, either Erika Nardini is the most evil person or the stupidest person on the planet, or both.
The same Erika I just described, who took us from $15 million to a billion, is probably the number one, number two female executive in sports in the world. Yeah, she’s evil. Deadspin, the company that went bankrupt, said that. Yeah, they did.
A player in the league, a player in the league in the NWHL, said Barstool is “white supremacist,” and doesn’t want to be associated with us. You should be in jail for that. To call a company “white supremacist” without a shred of proof because I sang a Ja Rule song five years ago, is that it? Like, at some point I kept waiting for the commissioner of the league or the players who’ve been on Erika’s podcast to step and be like, “We know this woman, and we know this company. You’re wrong. We don’t stand with you.”
But nope. They just fell in line, one after another, like cowards, to the point the league commissioner does a press release to air because nobody gives a f*** except us, and I’m personally offended that they could be that rude, dishonest, and treacherous. Just to fall in line because of the political climate; God forbid they’re wrong, who gives a f***, we just better go with whatever way the political winds are blowing, a girl in the league said we’re white supremacists, get out of here. Erika has had your back forever. You didn’t have the dignity to have her back? It’s disgusting, and it’s everything that’s wrong. Any player in that league, I guarantee you, would jump to our league if we had one. They’re scared because they have nowhere else to play.
But this league sucks and is doomed, is being run by a couple of no-fun club losers. Let me say that clearly: the people who attacked Erika — and then when Erika responds, like, “Oh, my God! Erika’s attacking us! She’s siccing her army on us!”
You f***ing dragged her, unprovoked, on social media, on Twitter, for no reason, and then you scream boo-hoo when she doesn’t even respond, really, she’s like, “You’d think they’d want me to help rather than trash me.”
Well, f*** you people. She’s a lot nicer than I am, but I literally told her, “Hey, Erika, you want to start” — and I don’t care about women’s hockey, I barely care about men’s hockey — “But if you want to start our own league and put these f***ing clowns out of business, I’m in.”
And all you people who kept your mouths shut can come play in our league, but the “white supremacist crap” girl, you’re done. And everyone else who talked s*** about it, you’re done. I highly advise if you have a backbone or a spine in that league, show some now. You know who Erika is; I know who she is. Grow a pair.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Emergency Press Conference &#8211; The NWHL Owes Erika Nardini An Apology <a href="https://t.co/qpnPn54Qqa">pic.twitter.com/qpnPn54Qqa</a>
&mdash; Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) <a href="https://twitter.com/stoolpresidente/status/1354287668247588864?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Thanks for having my back
&mdash; Erika (@erika_) <a href="https://twitter.com/erika_/status/1354400998387757056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 27, 2021</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Dave Portnoy

‘Grow A Pair’: Barstool Sports’ Portnoy Blasts Women’s Hockey League Criticizing His Female CEO

Barstool Sports