US women’s hockey decline State of the Union invite by Trump

The U.S. ladies’s hockey crew — contemporary off of successful gold on the 2026 Winter Olympics — declined President Donald Trump’s invitation for the crew to attend Tuesday’s State of the Union handle, with a spokesperson for USA Hockey citing scheduling conflicts.

USA Hockey issued a statement to The Athletic, which learn: “We’re sincerely grateful for the invitation prolonged to our gold medal-winning U.S. Girls’s Hockey Workforce and deeply respect the popularity of their extraordinary achievement.

“As a result of timing and beforehand scheduled tutorial {and professional} commitments following the Video games, the athletes are unable to take part. They have been honored to be included and are grateful for the acknowledgment.”

The U.S. ladies’s crew defeated Canada in overtime, 2-1, on Thursday to win the gold medal.

The U.S. males’s hockey crew — which won gold in an overtime win over Canada on Sunday — was additionally invited to Tuesday’s State of the Union occasion on the US Capitol.

Trump invited the boys’s crew to each the State of the Union and an occasion on the White Home on Wednesday shortly after they defeated Canada, 2-1, in Milan.

Throughout a celebration within the Workforce USA dressing room at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Area — which also included FBI director Kash Patel —  the boys’s hockey crew acquired a name from Trump.

In video taken within the dressing room throughout Trump’s name to the boys’s crew, he appeared to joke concerning the U.S. ladies’s crew.

“I have to inform you, we’re going to should carry the ladies’s crew, you do know that,” Trump said, including that he’d “most likely be impeached” if he didn’t invite the ladies’s crew. A number of of the boys’s crew gamers appeared to chuckle at Trump’s remark. 

A number of gamers of the U.S. ladies’s hockey crew play for NCAA packages, which weren’t on break for Olympics play. A number of different gamers take part within the PWHL professional hockey league, which resumes play on Thursday.

The NHL resumes motion Wednesday after practically three weeks off as a result of Olympics, which might battle with males’s hockey gamers who decide to attending each the State of the Union and any potential occasion on the White Home on Wednesday.

Workforce USA has not made a proper announcement on whether or not your entire males’s hockey crew might be in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday, though The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reported that a number of gamers are anticipated to make the journey. 

“[Werenski] and his USA teammates are anticipated to attend President Trump’s State of the Union handle,” Portzline posted on X.

Zach Werenski, a star defenseman for the Blue Jackets, is ready to play towards the Bruins Thursday evening at TD Backyard. It stays to be seen when each Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman — each members of the gold medal males’s crew — might be again in Boston’s lineup. 

Thursday’s return-to-play matchup for the Bruins will maintain loads of weight within the standings, because the Blue Jackets sit simply 4 factors behind Boston for the ultimate playoff spot within the Jap Convention. 

 

Conor Ryan is a employees author overlaying the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Crimson Sox for Boston.com, a job he has held since 2023.