Stephen Kruiser wrote an excellent piece on Wednesday about the left's backlash against the gold medal-winning USA men's hockey team for not being sufficiently outraged at Donald Trump's joking about being forced to invite the women's gold medal hockey team for an Oval Office visit, or he'd "be impeached."
It was an amusing bon mot that, in context, acknowledged the thrilling victory of the women's team while joking about his supposed misogyny. That just wouldn't do for the left. They're the ones who call out Trump for his supposed misogyny.
When the players refused to be outraged about Trump's joke, the left-wing outrage machine went into high gear.
“The USA men’s hockey team utterly failed to meet the cultural moment,” declared a USA Today writer.
The "cultural moment"? Holy hockey stick, Batman, take a look at Jack Hughes' smile after the game. He's missing at least one tooth from being whacked across the mouth with a Canadian player's stick. That happy, bloody, toothless smile was hardly related to "culture," but it got the message across.
In a world full of Megan Rapinoes, be a Jack Hughes pic.twitter.com/Yy0tgGyX9w
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) February 22, 2026
Stephen writes, "Leftists are so invested in their own misery that it pains them to see anyone having a good time, and the U.S. men's hockey team has been having a very, very good time since winning the gold medal."
Indeed, the left singled out Hughes for his smile and support for Trump.
alysa liu? woke. talented. diva. amazing.
— ໊ash (@2H4NDS) February 25, 2026
jack hughes? chopped. toothless. trump supporter. stinky. pic.twitter.com/Oqq2Z3CMkw
“I’m so proud to be American today,” said Jack Hughes. The Free Press's Bari Weiss described Hughes as "the front-toothless, bloodied, and charming player who won the game with a golden goal, dedicating the triumph to his country."
When was the last time you saw so many players on a U.S. sports team wearing American flags? When was the last time you saw such a wild celebration that was shared by most of the country?
This AI video went viral.
MURICA DID IT!
— BetOnline (@BetOnline_ag) February 22, 2026
USA IS GOLDEN 🥇 pic.twitter.com/h7ajrn31YW
Jimmy Shapiro, President of Stuff Media Group, sent an email to PJ Media's Managing Editor, Chris Queen, saying he had "rarely seen a sporting event drive more excitement than the gold medal victory yesterday morning.
How excited is the average person about this? And which states are the most excited about the men's hockey team winning the Olympic gold?
The map below, courtesy of BetOnline.ag, is based on geotagged X data in the last 24 hours tracking tweets, hashtags and direct keyword phrases about the United States winning the gold.
More than 2.2 million tweets were tracked in total.
The map is color coded for each state, going from the highest percentage of a state's tweets about winning the gold (full red color) to the states that had the lowest percentage of tweets about winning the gold (full blue color).
"There were six players on the team from Michigan, five from Minnesota, and three each from Massachusetts and Missouri. I expected all of those states to finish in the Top 5 out of civic pride for their state," writes Shapiro. But the results showed Missouri was 17th, Minnesota 23rd, Michigan 24th, and Massachusetts 27th.
The states in order of the highest percentage of tweets to the lowest percentage relating to USA hockey, in the 24-hour period of Feb. 22-23, are
- North Dakota
- South Dakota
- Utah
- Wyoming
- Alaska
- West Virginia
- Oklahoma
- Idaho
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Tennessee
- Kentucky
- Mississippi
- Louisiana
- Kansas
- South Carolina
- Missouri
- Indiana
- Nebraska
- Montana
- Iowa
- Texas
- Minnesota
- Michigan
- Ohio
- Florida
- Massachusetts
- North Carolina
- Georgia
- Arizona
- New Hampshire
- Virginia
- Wisconsin
- Pennsylvania
- Delaware
- Nevada
- Colorado
- Maine
- New Jersey
- Connecticut
- New York
- Rhode Island
- Illinois
- Maryland
- Vermont
- New Mexico
- Hawaii
- Oregon
- Washington
- California
Knowledge of rocket science is not required to notice that the bottom 15 states all voted Democratic in 2024, while the top 22 states all voted for Trump.
Related: The Wages of Progressive Hate: The First Antisemitism Lawsuit Filed Against a State
What is it that the left is demanding of Team USA men?
These critics’ demands were many. The team must explicitly denounce Trump and his administration, refuse his invitation to the State of the Union like the women’s hockey team did (apparently for scheduling conflicts), personally apologize for Trump’s joke, and probably invent a time machine and smash the cell phone Trump called them on.
No matter that the players have been supportive of their female peers. On Sunday, Hughes said the first person he thought of after scoring the winning goal was Megan Keller, who had just cinched the win for the U.S. women’s team. Even in the video, one player can be heard chanting “two for two!” in honor of both teams’ wins.
Hughes, for his part, has responded to the controversy like a champ. “They’ve got busy schedules, too,” he said of the women’s team in response to criticism of their declining the White House invitation. “Everyone is giving us backlash for all the social media stuff today.”
Hughes gave the best political analysis of the week.
“People are so negative out there, and they are just trying to find a reason to put people down and make something out of almost nothing,” he said.
He can always work for Fox when he retires in 20 years.
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