NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman defends USA men’s team for ‘unfair’ portrayal of women’s squad

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman defended the United States men’s hockey team for their reactions to President Donald Trump talking about the women’s team following their gold medal victory at the Milan Cortina Games. 

While on the phone with the men’s team after they defeated Canada to win gold, Trump said he would “have” to invite the women’s team, which also defeated Canada to win Olympic gold, to last week’s State of the Union address. He added that he “probably would be impeached” if he did not extend an invitation to the women’s team.

Members of both teams have said they supported each other throughout the Olympics, and Bettman agreed with that sentiment.

“I know for a fact that the men’s team had no intention of doing anything to slight the women’s team,” Bettman said on Tuesday, via Sportsnet. “If anything, both teams were chanting, ‘Two for two.’ 

“What happened and how it was portrayed, I wish didn’t happen the way it did, and I think it was unfair to the men’s team. And again, I don’t think the women’s team had a different view of it. I mean, look at (U.S. women’s captain) Hilary Knight and the others talking about what happened. These two teams respected each other.”

Jeremy Swayman, the men’s team’s backup goaltender, admitted the team “should have reacted differently” to Trump’s comments. But he and Jack and Quinn Hughes all spoke highly of the women’s team and their relationships with them.

Jack Hughes told reporters after his gold medal-winning goal that the first thing he thought about when the puck went in was Megan Keller, who scored the golden goal for the United States women’s team against Canada three days earlier.

The brothers’ mother, Ellen, a former Team USA player and current player development staff member, said the players only cared about “bring[ing] so much unity to a group and to a country.”

Knight and Megan Keller, who scored the women’s golden goal, joined the Hughes brothers on this past weekend’s “Saturday Night Live.”

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