{"id":488705,"date":"2026-02-25T01:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/488705\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T01:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T01:55:07","slug":"five-us-mens-hockey-players-skip-white-house-visit-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/488705\/","title":{"rendered":"Five US men\u2019s hockey players skip White House visit \u2014 here’s why"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the U.S. men\u2019s Olympic hockey team arrived in Washington, D.C. with plans to attend the State of the Union<\/a> address later on in the evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of the 25 members of the gold medal-winning team, 20 will be in attendance in the nation\u2019s capital on Tuesday evening, The Athletic reported<\/a>, with five returning home in preparation for the resumption of the NHL season on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jets\u2019 winger Kyle Connor, Dallas goaltender Jake Oettinger, Avalanche forward Brock Nelson, Lightning winger Jake Guentzel and Ducks defenseman Jackson LaCombe are not taking part in any celebrations in D.C.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brock Nelson of Team United States shoots the puck against Cale Makar of Team Canada in the second period during the Men\u2019s Gold Medal match between Canada and the United States on day 16 of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Nelson, a former Islander, skipped the trip in order to return to Denver with his family and is expected to join the team on Wednesday in Salt Lake City, where they will face the Mammoth, according to the Denver Post.<\/a><\/p>\n

Connor, who played during Team USA\u2019s first game of the Olympic tournament but did not appear again the rest of the way, was on the ice with the Jets for Tuesday\u2019s practice as the team prepares to face the Canucks on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big second half, so I just wanted to make sure I was ready,\u201d Connor told reporters about the early return.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jake Guentzel #59 of Team United States celebrate a 2-1 victory against Canada in overtime for the gold medal during the Men\u2019s Gold Medal match between Canada and the United States on day 16 of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic games at Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena on February 22, 2026. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Oettinger will be back in Dallas on Tuesday and will back up Casey DeSmith for Wednesday\u2019s game against the Kraken, a Stars spokesperson told the Dallas Morning News.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Guentzel was back in Tampa on Tuesday, but did not practice with his team.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Times reported<\/a> that his decision to remain in Tampa was so that he could rest and prioritize the game on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

LaCombe had been en route back to SoCal on Tuesday and was expected to land in California later on that evening, the Sporting Tribune\u2019s Zach Cavanagh reported.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Jake Oettinger of Team United States. Getty Images<\/p>\n

There has been no indication that their decisions to skip Tuesday\u2019s events had to do with any political ideology.<\/p>\n

The rest of Team USA arrived in Washington on Tuesday morning on a US Air Force 757 that picked them up at Miami International Airport after they spent the night celebrating the gold medal win in South Beach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The U.S. squad was invited to the State of the Union and the White House in a postgame phone call with president Donald Trump <\/a>after they defeated Canada in the gold medal game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Video and images of the team at the White House on Tuesday have circulated around social media, including by accounts connected to the Trump Administration.<\/p>\n

In one video posted online, Matthew Tkachuk hands Trump his gold medal to wear before he and the other members of the team posed for photos with the president in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Members of the U.S. men\u2019s Olympic hockey team arrived in Washington, D.C. with plans to attend the State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[12,385,1082,99,183914,42270,40235,3123,58926,211565],"class_list":{"0":"post-488705","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-donald-trump","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-olympics","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-state-of-the-union","13":"tag-team-usa","14":"tag-usa-hockey","15":"tag-white-house","16":"tag-winter-olympics","17":"tag-winter-olympics-2026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}