U.S. Olympic men’s, women’s hockey stars joke about ‘Heated Rivalry,’ Trump invite on ‘SNL’
U.S. Olympic hockey star Jack Hughes is well-known in the NHL for being lightning-fast on the ice. Well, how about how fast he got from St. Louis to Rockefeller Center in New York City for his “Saturday Night Live” appearance?
After the New Jersey Devils forward played a game against the St. Louis Blues that started at 4:08 p.m. CT on Saturday and ended at 6:33 p.m. in Missouri, he was wheels up on a Gulfstream V from Cahokia/St. Louis Airport at 7:16 p.m. (8:16 p.m. ET), on a flight with Devils owners David and Allison Blitzer, younger brother and teammate Luke Hughes and Devils senior vice president of hockey communications and team operations Pete Albietz.
After cruising at 49,000 feet and cramming for the “SNL” appearance by reading the script, Hughes landed in Teterboro, N.J., at 10:01 p.m. He jumped on a helicopter at Teterboro and flew to W30th Pier from 10:08 p.m. to 10:18 p.m. There, a car was waiting to hustle the traveling party to 30 Rock, where they arrived at the “SNL” loading docks at 10:32 p.m — 58 minutes before the show’s cold open.
So, in all, it took Hughes 2 hours and 59 minutes from game’s end in St. Louis to get to his final destination.
Arriving at the famous Studio 8H, the Olympic gold medalist joined his older brother, Quinn, and U.S. women’s national team pillars and PWHL stars Hilary Knight and Megan Keller to swap their skates for cue cards on “Saturday Night Live.”
Nine nights ago, Knight and Keller were heroes in the United States’ winning its third women’s hockey gold medal with a 2-1 overtime win over Canada. Less than a week ago, Jack Hughes followed Keller’s example and scored the “Golden Goal” in a 2-1 overtime win over Canada to deliver the Americans their first men’s Olympic hockey gold medal since 1980.
Saturday night, instead of playing hockey in front of thousands of people, they stepped in front of a studio audience and had the guts to do live television in front of millions.
Connor Storrie’s monologue! pic.twitter.com/j3b9QkrcWB
— Saturday Night Live (@nbcsnl) March 1, 2026
The show was hosted by “Heated Rivalry” actor Connor Storrie, and at the end of his monologue, the Hughes brothers joined him on stage and pretended they had no idea what “Heated Rivalry” was about.
“We’ve been so busy playing, we haven’t had time to see your show yet. It’s about hockey, right?” Jack said, through some missing teeth after being high-sticked late in the third period of the gold-medal game.
“Kind of,” Storrie deadpanned.
“I got my teeth knocked out in the finals. Does that happen in your show?” Jack said.
“Metaphorically,” Storrie, with a wink, said.
“What team do you play on?” Quinn asked.
When told the Boston Raiders, Jack asked what league that was in.
“The HBO,” Storrie joked.
Keller and Knight then joined the Hughes brothers on stage, with Keller cracking, “Don’t worry, we saw your show.”
When Storrie told them that it’s so cool that they were all there, Knight snapped, “It was gonna be just us, but we thought we’d invite the guys, too” — a reference to U.S. President Donald Trump begrudgingly telling the men’s hockey team after they won gold that he’d be impeached if he didn’t invite the women’s team to the White House with them.
“Yeah, we thought we’d give them a little moment to shine,” Keller said, with the Hughes brothers applauding.
When Storrie told the players how cool it was to have four gold-medalists on stage, Quinn said, “Thanks. The last time the men did that was 46 years ago.” Knight joked back, “And the last time we did that was two whole Olympics ago.”
Jack then told Storrie, “But these gold medals aren’t just for us. They’re for all hockey fans, yours, too.”
Storrie asked if he could try on a medal, and all snapped back, “Nooooo.”
This was Knight’s second appearance on “SNL.” In 2018, after winning gold at the Olympics, Knight — the all-time leading goal scorer and point getter in U.S. Olympic history — appeared on “Weekend Update” with Leslie Jones and Colin Jost.
Knight, who scored the tying goal in her fifth and final Olympics, is currently sidelined as captain of the Seattle Torrent after returning from Milan with an injury. Keller, who scored an overtime winner in the gold medal game, flew to New York on Saturday night after assisting on a goal and playing more than 29 minutes in the Boston Fleet’s shootout win at Ottawa on Saturday afternoon.
The Hughes brothers are the first NHLers to appear on “SNL” since 2004, when Brett Hull made an appearance on “Weekend Update” with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
For Jack Hughes, the “SNL” appearance wasn’t even his only comedic appearance of the night. On the plane to New York/New Jersey, he and Luke Hughes FaceTimed comedian Matt Rife and appeared on the center-ice scoreboard for a few minutes as part of his set at Prudential Center.
Quinn Hughes, meanwhile, played Friday night in Salt Lake City in a Minnesota Wild loss to the Utah Mammoth. He flew back to Minnesota after the game, flew to New York on Saturday, will return to Minnesota on Sunday to play a 4 p.m. CT game against the Blues and will return to New York on Monday to appear on “The Tonight Show” with his brother Jack, and Knight.
“The Tonight Show” episode will also feature guests Nicole Kidman and Luke Thompson and airs at 11:35 p.m. ET on NBC and streams Tuesday on Peacock.
