Kyle Connor can't be happy about how his Olympics went in Milano-Cortina. He played the first two games of the tournament, but after recording zero shots or points, Mike Sullivan made him a healthy scratch for the rest of the tournament. While it's still an honor to be a gold medal winner, given the personal outcome, it's not surprising to see Connor skip President Donald Trump's White House invitation for Team USA and get far away from the victory celebration.
To make matters worse, Connor already suffered this fate last year when he was a scratch for the 4 Nations Face-Off championship. He has quickly fallen out of favor with the Team USA brass, which can be bad news when battling for spots in best-on-best hockey. The team's front office might not be as quick to take him next time around, so instead, Connor is focusing on the rest of his Winnipeg Jets season, according to Murat Ates via X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I'm just getting ready. We play on Wednesday,” Connor said. “It's a big second half, so I just wanted to make sure I was ready.”
Team USA's victory celebration has come under fire for including Trump and other government officials. The team's reaction to some of the President's comments about the Women's National Team and their invitation to the White House after also winning gold has also been a sore spot for some. Connor didn't have much to comment about the backlash.
“I don't really have any thoughts on that. There's so many things happening,” Connor explained. “We just won the gold medal, and things are going on, so I don't really remember what he said. It's such a whirlwind, just celebrating.”
Clearly, after a tough couple of weeks, Kyle Connor just wants to get on with the NHL season.
