Hilary Knight References Trump’s Phone Call With Clever Joke During ‘SNL’ Appearance

Hilary Knight and the gold medal-winning U.S. hockey teams continued their media tour this weekend with a special appearance on Saturday Night Live.
Knight, along with fellow Team USA hockey stars Megan Keller, Quinn Hughes and Jack Hughes, made a cameo during Heated Rivalry actor Connor Storrie’s opening monologue.
After the Hughes brothers walked onto the stage and stood next to Storrie, Knight and Keller came out about a minute later to rousing applause from the audience at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
“It was going to be just us, but we thought we’d invite the guys, too,” Knight said.
“Yeah, we thought we’d give them a moment to shine,” Keller quipped.
Team USA men's (Jack Hughes and Quinn Hughes) and women's (Hilary Knight and Megan Keller) hockey gold medal winners crash the Connor Storrie SNL monologue. 🏒🇺🇸🥇📺 pic.twitter.com/Tre9XDMgKa
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 1, 2026
It was a clear reference to President Donald Trump’s denounced comments to the U.S. men’s team in the locker room after their 2–1 win over Canada in the gold medal game. FBI director Kash Patel—who oddly chose to party with the team after the gold medal game—set up a phone call with some players in the locker room and Trump. On the call, Trump invited the men’s team to the White House and said he’d “have to” invite the women’s team as well or else he would get impeached.
Trump’s joke was initially met with laughs in the men’s locker room. But in the aftermath of that video going viral, players on the U.S. men’s hockey team have come out in defense of the women’s hockey team.
"We should've reacted differently," goaltender Connor Hellebuyck said of Trump’s comments. "We know that we are so excited for the women's team. We have so much respect for the women's team. To share that gold medal with them is something that we're forever grateful for. Now that we're home, we get to share that together forever, and see the incredible support that we have from the USA and share in this incredible gold medal."
Knight made history Saturday night, becoming the first professional female athlete to make multiple appearances on SNL. She also appeared on SNL’s “Weekend Update” segment after leading Team USA to a gold medal in 2018.
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Tom Dierberger is a staff writer and editor on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in November 2023 after stints at FOX Sports, Bally Sports and NBC Sports. Dierberger has a bachelor's in communication from St. John's University. In his spare time, he can be seen throwing out his arm while playing fetch with his dog, Walter B. Boy.
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