Jack Hughes talks Trump backlash over women's team - ESPN

U.S. Olympic hockey players Jack and Quinn Hughes have addressed the backlash over the team's reaction to President Donald Trump's comments about the women's Olympic hockey team.

The American men's hockey team won gold for the first time since 1980 on Jack Hughes' overtime goal against Canada on Sunday. During the team's locker room celebration in Milan, which featured FBI director Kash Patel as a guest, Trump extended an invitation to the players to attend Tuesday's State of the Union address.

As Patel held the phone, Trump said, «I must tell you, we're going to have to bring the women's team, you do know that,» adding jokingly that if he didn't also invite the women's team, «I do believe I probably would be impeached.»

The U.S. players laughed at the comments, a reaction that drew harsh criticism when the video went viral.

«Everyone is giving us backlash for all the social media stuff today. 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,» Jack Hughes said in an interview outside of E11even Miami, where the team celebrated its victory Monday.

Hughes said the two teams grew closer during their respective journeys to the gold medal at the Winter Olympics.

«Our relationship with them, over the course of being in the Olympic Village, I think we are so tight with their group. After we won the gold medal, we were in the cafeteria at 3:30 a.m. in the morning with them. We go from there, pack our bags and we're on the bus,» Hughes said. «People are so negative about things. I think everyone in that locker room knows how much we support them, how proud we are of them. The same way we feel about them, they feel about us.»

Jack Hughes, a