Mac Engel: FBI director and President Trump put USA hockey players in a terrible position

Mac Engel, Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Feb 25, 2026

Published in Olympics

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Along with his gold-medal winning teammates, Dallas Stars goalie Jake Oettinger was unknowingly thrust into America’s last national political point of outrage, because we can’t have nice things.

Three days after celebrating with his teammates following Team USA’s 2-1 overtime win over Canada in the gold medal game of the 2026 Winter Olympics, Oettinger explained why he skipped a visit to the White House and didn’t attend the State of the Union address on Tuesday.

This was not a political statement. Several Team USA players also did not make the trip to D.C.

“Getting invited to the White House is a tremendous honor,” Oettinger said Wednesday morning after the Stars’ morning skate. “I’ve basically been living in Italy for a month. I have a huge stretch run. I wasn’t playing much.”

As a backup, Oettinger did not play at all for Team USA in these Olympics. He was the No. 2 goalie on Sunday behind Connor Hellebuyck.

“I wanted to get back and get my game ready to go,” Oettinger said. “I also have a 3-month-old baby at home that I’ve been traveling the world with, so that’s what went into that. I think those guys had a great time there (at the White House), but that’s why I didn’t go.”

About three hours after USA forward Jack Hughes scored the golden goal to beat Canada, the national reaction changed from unity to divisiveness when videos went viral of FBI Director Kash Patel drinking and partying with the team.

According to reports, Team USA hockey GM Bill Guerin invited Patel into the locker room, which had morphed into a rager where anybody who walked in was handed a beer and expected to party.

“I think everyone knows who he is; he was in the locker room partying,” Oettinger said of Patel. “Look around the locker room, and there’s a bunch of random people that are in there. Nothing too crazy.”

That’s how those scenes can go, especially in hockey. Whoever is in those rooms, where beer and champagne rains, is expected to partake.

Patel then made a call to President Trump, who while inviting the team to the White House made a dumb joke that he’d have to invite the Team USA women’s hockey team, too. The video is cringe worthy, and some of the players laughed.

That clip has put the entire team on the defensive to explain what appears to be another case of boys-being-boys behavior from the 1950s.

“My opinion on that is there is no one who supports women’s hockey more than me. I know a lot of those girls personally,” Oettinger said. “If you had been at the bar with me watching the game with me where I was watching (Team USA’s women’s hockey gold medal win over Canada) there’s no one as excited as me watching them win the gold medal.

“They deserve all the credit in the world. They’re dominant. I was so happy for them, and to get to know a few of them personally made it all that much cooler.”

The national reaction does not ruin USA’s hockey gold medal

Video of the FBI director partying with the USA hockey team is exactly as it looks — the nerd who never got invited to the popular kids’ party suddenly in the room where he yearns for the shallow validation he desperately seeks.

Patel spending taxpayer money for a trip to the Olympics is just another example of a person in power, be it government or high up the corporate food chain, using their position for free trips, food or access. Why pay for anything when you can expense it?

A government official congratulating an Olympian is routine; Patel should have stood at the door of the locker room, taken a few photos and left. Patel partying like the frat bro he wants to be is beneath his title.

A president congratulating Olympians, or inviting them to the White House, is also routine. Jimmy Carter did it in 1980 for the Miracle on Ice team, but that was 1980. And that was Jimmy Carter.

A man who will soon be 80 doggedly trying to sound cool and ingratiate himself with the most popular crowd in America told a tired joke from 1955. That’s all it was. A joke.

All of it put this team in a position it didn’t deserve, and in doing so did not ruin the moment, or the achievement, but added another few paragraphs that we didn’t need.

Because in the climate, anything a nationally elected, or appointed, official does makes it about them, a party, and not red, white and blue but just red or blue.