Once again, ice hockey is in the public eye. If you haven’t been exposed to the sport through the popularity of the hockey romance show “Heated Rivalry,” the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics followed soon after, with the U.S. men’s and women’s national teams winning gold medals — both in dramatic fashion against rival Canada — reinvigorating a national passion for the sport.
However, each of these groups invite their own subsection of hockey “fandom.” Subsections that frankly, are at odds most of the time. There’s a stark difference in how the “old heads” of the men’s hockey fandom treat those whose first taste of the sport was a show primarily about two men swapping spit.
So, the best solution to capitalize on this insane intersection? Throw figureheads from each section, for one night only, on “Saturday Night Live.”
Unsurprisingly, the decision to pair U.S. Olympians and brothers Quinn and Jack Hughes, whose impact on and off the ice (both positively and negatively) cannot be denied, with U.S. Olympians Megan Keller and Hilary Knight was controversial enough.
For those unaware, both Jack and Quinn were involved in an incident where, after the U.S. men’s national team won gold in Milan,
President Donald Trump made misogynistic comments towards the U.S. women’s team. Jack and Quinn, along with the rest of the team, were spotted laughing.
Some fans had predictable outrage, while others were predictably not fazed. That enough on “SNL” could be enough fuel to the fire inside viewers, but add “Heated Rivalry” stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams?
Complete meltdown.
Fans on X were divided as the episode aired.
“This heated rivalry shit has to stop. Subversive,” one user wrote. Just below them, another user had a completely different view.
“Nooo why would you post this! Jack Hughes is a racist sexist scumbag. Why would you give him this platform. Be better!”
Other users pointed to the fact that these teams weren’t at odds at all, despite the backlash on the internet.
“I love how everyone is trying to get the men’s and women’s team to talk trash about the other but they’re not having any of that!”
Personally, I found the exchanges, both on the show and on the internet, hilarious.
Trust me, I’ve had my fair share of hatred for how the U.S. men’s national team reacted to Trump calling the locker room.
However, did it lead to the best joke of the entire night? Absolutely.
“It was just going to be us, but we thought we’d invite the guys too,” Knight said on the show.
Absolute all-time joke.
In general, the show did a great job poking fun at its very premise. The jokes in Storrie’s monologue were designed to compare the raunchiness of “Heated Rivalry” to the obliviousness of the actual men involved within the sport.
“I got my teeth knocked out in the finals, does that happen in your show?,” Jack says, answered by Storrie’s “metaphorically” as he licks his lips was exactly what fans wanted.
Elevated by the brothers’ complete inability to act, even in comparison to Keller and Knight, the entire sequence felt even more designed to poke fun at a team and sport that, at best, has been a bit too comfortable with casual misogyny.
The implication in one of the jokes, that neither player has seen the show “Heated Rivalry,” is made even funnier after Rachel Reid, author of the “Game Changers” series — adapted to become “Heated Rivalry” by show creator Jacob Tierney — claims Quinn and her exchanged positive words after she introduced herself.
“I approached Quinn Hughes,” Reid said on the Loon Call podcast. “He like, lit up…he said ‘the show is incredible.’”
According to Reid, Quinn also asked questions about the books and that he “would like to read them.”
Do I necessarily believe Reid? It’s tough to tell without confirmation from Quinn himself, but the possibility might be even funnier than the truth.
Regardless, the Olympic athletes’ appearance definitely brought eyes to screens. Suddenly, after not even a month has passed since the Olympics, people are once again talking about the sport and how funny the entire premise of this “hockey mashup” was.
Did “SNL” break new ground? Not really. Capitalizing on hockey’s popularity is nothing new. Even the president did it. No one’s opinions were changed, and nothing inherently controversial occurred. However, a five-minute segment on a late-night comedy show isn’t going to change anyone’s opinions about how they see any of the parties involved.
But if you’re willing to take a joke and poke fun at the inherent silliness in a community so vastly disconnected, I can almost guarantee you will enjoy Storrie’s “SNL” monologue.
