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Connor Storrie finally arrived on Saturday Night Live<\/em> last night with a breezy, charming opening monologue on the fandom and the breakout success of Heated Rivalry<\/em>. More than 1,000 people lined up outside 30 Rock hoping to get into the taping, a testament to how fast the 26-year-old former restaurant server became one of the hottest actors in America. Then came the inevitable twist, hinted at before the show aired but no less depressing when it unfolded on air.<\/p>\n As his monologue went on, Storrie was joined on stage by hockey-star brothers Quinn and Jack Hughes, fresh from the gold-medal-winning U.S. men\u2019s hockey team. The team has spent the past week engulfed in backlash after a leaked video showed them partying with FBI Director Kash Patel post-win and laughing as President Trump joked he\u2019d \u201chave to\u201d invite the women to the White House alongside them or he\u2019d \u201cprobably be impeached.\u201d Undeterred, the team followed this by allowing themselves to be used as MAGA props at the State of the Union, and then a week of non-apologies that made everything worse.<\/p>\n On SNL<\/em>, after somewhat muted applause, the Hughes brothers admitted they hadn\u2019t watched Heated Rivalry<\/em>, the show that has done more for hockey\u2019s cultural reach than anything the league has managed in years. (\u201cIt\u2019s about hockey, right?\u201d Hughes attempted to joke. \u201cKind of,\u201d Connor said with a mischievous grin.) Then U.S. women\u2019s hockey captain Hilary Knight and teammate Megan Keller also made surprise appearances, to notable roars from the audience.<\/p>\n Storrie went on to speak about the importance of his show representing people who aren\u2019t always seen in hockey, as Quinn Hughes looked at the floor. Meanwhile, Knight and Keller, who had<\/em> watched the show, spent the monologue addressing the week\u2019s controversy with the humor and poise the Hughes brothers wouldn\u2019t or couldn\u2019t manage themselves. Delivering one of the best lines of the night, Knight said with a grin, \u201cIt was gonna be just us, but we thought we\u2019d invite the guys too.\u201d Keller followed, \u201cWe thought we\u2019d give them a little moment to shine.\u201d The audience loved it\u2014because the audience, unlike the men who laughed along with Trump days earlier, understood who had earned the goodwill in that room, and who was borrowing it.<\/p>\n Saturday Night Live <\/em>should never have turned Storrie\u2019s debut into this, a grim spectacle of the U.S. men\u2019s hockey team having its reputation laundered on live television by the very people its behavior disrespected. And yet that is precisely what happened: the cleanup has been outsourced to the women who\u2019ve spent the week answering for the men\u2019s behavior and to the star of a gay hockey love story whose show brought a new generation of fans to a sport that just told them they don\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n It does not take a communications professional, though I am one, to recognize this for what it is.<\/p>\n For U.S. men\u2019s hockey, this week should have been a thrilling and uncomplicated triumph. Instead, within days, the team\u2019s general manager had invited the embattled FBI director into their locker room celebration, the president\u2019s congratulatory call had turned into a punchline about the women\u2019s team, the players had attended the State of the Union, and then they were giving interviews lamenting that \u201ceverything is so political.\u201d (The women\u2019s team declined the invitation to D.C.)<\/p>\n Enter NBC. Both SNL<\/em> and The Tonight Show<\/em>\u2014where both Hughes brothers will also appear tomorrow alongside Knight\u2014are NBC properties. NBC just broadcast the Olympics. The U.S. men\u2019s hockey team gave NBC its biggest single ratings event of the Milan games. Of course it makes ratings sense to book gold medalists on late night, and Storrie was announced as this week\u2019s SNL<\/em> host before the men\u2019s team became a PR crisis. But the decision to put the Hughes brothers in his monologue, alongside the women whose team Trump\u2019s joke was about, was not a coincidence. This is NBC running damage control on its own air. And USA hockey is more than happy to let it.<\/p>\n Yet the men themselves have done remarkably little to earn any of it. Of the 23 men on that roster, very few have offered something in the neighborhood of regret. Boston Bruin Charlie McAvoy<\/a> said he was \u201ccertainly sorry for how we responded to it in that moment,\u201d referring to Trump\u2019s comment. Fellow Bruin Jeremy Swayman<\/a> said the team \u201cshould have reacted differently.\u201d Columbus Blue Jacket Zach Werenski <\/a>acknowledged \u201cit doesn\u2019t look great.\u201d Notice how none of them are the Hughes brothers.<\/p>\n Jack Hughes, when asked directly whether he agreed with Swayman, said<\/a>: \u201cIt is what it is.\u201d He told the Daily Mail<\/a> that people are \u201ctrying to find a reason to put people down and make something out of almost nothing.\u201d He told ESPN<\/a>: \u201cEverything is so political. We\u2019re athletes,\u201d a fascinating thing to say during a week in which he attended the State of the Union as a Trump stooge. Quinn told Good Morning America<\/em><\/a> that there\u2019s \u201ca lot going on with social media right now surrounding their team and our team,\u201d before stressing how close the two teams had been in the Olympic Village\u2014and then noting that they were \u201cexcited to go\u201d to the State of the Union. The men\u2019s mother, Ellen Hughes, a player development consultant for USA women\u2019s hockey, was deployed on Today<\/em><\/a> to talk about \u201cunity\u201d and \u201csynergy.\u201d No apology from the boys, though. Just mom doing the work on national television, which, in hindsight, was a preview of what was to come.<\/p>\n Knight, for her part, has two gold medals. Three silvers. Fifteen Olympic goals and 33 points, both all-time records<\/a>. She scored the tying goal in the final minutes of her fifth and final Olympic game, the kind of moment that should define a legacy. Now she has spent the days responding to this mess. At a recent press conference, Knight called Trump\u2019s joke \u201cdistasteful and unfortunate\u201d before adding the thing that should make everyone involved in these two bookings feel abashed: \u201cNow I have to sort of sit in front of you and explain someone else\u2019s behavior. It\u2019s not my responsibility.\u201d She then walked onto the SNL<\/em> stage and turned the joke that demeaned her team into the biggest laugh of the monologue, a dispiriting moment in itself. She was, as she has been for two decades, impossibly gracious about a situation that did not require her grace. On Monday, she\u2019ll do it again on The Tonight Show<\/em>, seated next to the men who still haven\u2019t managed it themselves.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s Storrie. A few months ago, as he noted on the show, he was waiting tables. Now he\u2019s hosting SNL.<\/em> His portrayal of Ilya Rozanov, a closeted Russian hockey star navigating a secret decade-long romance with his on-ice rival, made him one of the most-talked-about actors in the country overnight. The show has become a cultural phenomenon: Its viewership<\/a> exceeds 10.6 million U.S. viewers per episode. The NHL has called it<\/a> \u201cthe most unique driver for creating new fans\u201d in the league\u2019s 108-year history. Interest in hockey tickets on StubHub<\/a> increased by 40 percent. LGBTQ hockey leagues reported surges<\/a> in aspiring new players. Closeted professional athletes have reportedly reached out<\/a> to the show\u2019s stars to share their stories. And Storrie has used his platform to advocate for queer youth in sports. His fans came to hockey because the show told them there was room for them.<\/p>\n Last night should have been one of the biggest nights of his life, and in many ways it was. But his monologue, the moment that should have belonged to him, became a vehicle for the men\u2019s hockey team\u2019s rehab, as he spent part of it holding together a segment built around two hockey players who couldn\u2019t be bothered to watch the show or understand its impact.<\/p>\n