“Heated Rivalry” star Connor Storrie debuted as “SNL” host Saturday with a monologue that was less about the actor who plays a hockey star on TV, and more about giving credit to the women’s USA hockey team following their slight from the men’s team and President Donald Trump during the recent Olympics.
Following the cold open, Storrie — who plays Russian hockey player Ilya Rozanov on HBO’s hit hockey romance TV series “Heated Rivalry” opposite Hudson Williams as Canadian hockey star Shane Hollander — kicked off his monologue, saying: “I am so excited to be here. Now, some of you may have seen literally all of me on my show. It’s a show that has taught a lot of people about hockey, and it’s taught a lot of straight women that their sexuality is actually gay guy.”
After making a few more jokes about the cultural phenomenon surrounding “Heated Rivalry” and expressing excitement over the explosive rise in his acting career that’s brought him to “Saturday Night Live,” Storrie brought out brothers and USA men’s hockey stars Quinn and Jack Hughes, who said they’ve been too busy with the Olympics to watch the show yet.
“It’s about hockey, right?” Quinn Hughes said. “Kind of,” Storrie joked.
“I got my teeth knocked out in the finals, does that happen in your show?” Jack Hughes said. “Metaphorically,” Storrie responded with a knowing smirk.
When Storrie said he hoped “some hockey players watched it,” USA women’s hockey stars Megan Keller and Hilary Knight came out on stage to roaring applause from Storrie, the Hughes brothers and the Studio 8H audience.
“Don’t worry, we saw your show,” Keller said, once the cheers had settled down.
Knight joked that, “it was gonna be just us” who joined Storrie on “SNL,” “but we thought we’d invite the guys, too.”
“Yeah, we thought we’d give them a little moment to shine,” Keller added.
The bit was a reference to a controversy that started when the men’s hockey team won at the Olympics, and Donald Trump called to invite them to attend the State of the Union address. Recordings circulated of Trump’s phone call with the team, during which he could be heard saying, “I must tell you, we’re gonna have to bring the women’s team — you do know that,” adding that he felt if he didn’t invite them, “I do believe I probably would be impeached.” Everyone was then heard laughing.
Following the call, the women’s team declined to attend the State of the Union address. Since then, the men’s hockey team players have received backlash from fans for their reaction to Trump’s comments and not speaking up on behalf of the women’s team.
During his “SNL” monologue, Storrie congratulated all the players on gold-medaling at the recent Olympics.
“Thanks, the last time the men did that was 46 years ago,” Quinn Hughes said. Knight added with pride: “And the last time we did that was two whole Olympics ago.”
“Nice burn,” Jack Hughes said, adding: “But these gold medals aren’t just for us, they’re for all hockey fans. Yours too.”
Storrie asked if that meant he, a fictional hockey star, could touch one, to which all four responded: “No.”
Watch Storrie’s “SNL” monologue featuring the women’s and men’s USA hockey team players in the video below.
