Media needs to be better when it comes to covering the difficult issues in hockey

In what was a nice wrap-up to the U.S. Olympic hockey drama, this past weekend Saturday Night Live invited gold medallists Hilary Knight and Megan Keller from the women’s hockey team, to join Jack and Quinn Hughes from the gold-medallist men’s team for the opening monologue.

The skit, with host Connor Storie from Heated Rivalry, gave space to the women to have some fun with the Hughes brothers and take a jab at U.S. President Donald Trump, who was the catalyst of the post-game debacle after the men’s Olympic final. Knight called the comments “distasteful and unfortunate.”

The SNL appearance gave the players an opportunity to focus on hockey again, and offered audiences and fans some closure. 

But has anything really changed when it comes to coverage of women's hockey, or any sport for that matter? Why hasn’t it changed? As a journalist, I often ask: Is the media part of the problem?

It is unsurprising to find sexist attitudes alive and well, on and off the ice, in 2026. One could say that transparency and accountability are not staples of mainstream hockey culture. 

But it is incumbent upon the media to challenge those narratives. In the U.S., the media have been asking the players who have settled back into their NHL teams about the locker room incident.

But where does Canadian hockey media fall in the fray? TSN reporter Claire Hanna covers the Ottawa Senators. She took the first opportunity to question U.S. team member and Senators captain Brady Tkachuk about why he laughed at Trump’s joke in the post-game celebration Feb. 22. Hanna shared a number of angry and sexist messages she got after doing her job. 

Brady Tkachuk on why the USA Men's team laughed with the US President: <br><br>“I don’t really have an answer.