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Rangers forward Vincent Trocheck believes it’s “sad” that Team USA’s gold-medal hockey victory at the Olympics has been cause for political discourse.
Trocheck, teammate JT Miller and the American squad capped a whirlwind week of celebrations following Sunday’s overtime victory over Canada with a trip to the White House and an appearance at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address Tuesday night in Washington, D.C.
“For me, it’s sad that it’s getting politicized the way it is,” Trocheck said upon his return to Rangers practice on Wednesday. “We’re just all very proud to be Americans, and we’re all so proud to go over there [to Milan] and win a gold medal.
“We went over there with a job to win gold and do it for our country and for everybody back here, and we were able to do that. It’s sad that it automatically gets turned into something political when all we really wanted to do was represent everybody here and everybody in our country as well as we could.”
The U.S. women’s team, which also earned the gold medal, declined an invitation to attend the SOTU. The men’s team also invited FBI director Kash Patel into their celebratory post-game locker room and took a congratulatory phone call from Trump.
According to Trocheck, the team also received a tour of the Oval Office and the White House earlier Tuesday.
“Just to be invited, that’s so special,” Miller added. “I haven’t been there to tour the Capitol or the White House or anything before, so just to see that…I just felt super-honored to be a part of that and represent our country. Obviously, the reason we got to go there was a special reason, also.”
“That’s a super-humbling opportunity. I think we all, as Americans, all went [to Italy] with one thing on our mind, to bring home a gold medal. That was us, and that was the women’s team… I don’t follow all the noise on the outside. We just enjoyed ourselves. And we’re very proud to be Americans and came back with the gold medal, and that’s the reason we went there. We feel really proud and lucky to have all the opportunities we’ve had over the last couple of days.”
English (US)