As Team USA celebrates the first men’s hockey victory in nearly half a century, Jon Stewart unpacked the sport’s current cultural significance.
During Monday’s episode of The Daily Show, the comedian reflected on the “super weird year” for hockey after the massive Heated Rivalry success and USA’s victory over Team Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics, which MAGA has since co-opted as a symbol of nationalism.
“First of all, what a super weird year hockey is having,” he noted in his monologue. “In four months, to go from, nobody gives a sh*t about hockey, to, ‘well, I like to watch them f*ck,’ to, ‘only hockey can save us from an estro-genetic future.’”
Stewart said of Team USA’s victory, “It was so unifying! There is nothing that can take away from the joyous moment as all Americans celebrate—wait, what the f*ck?! Is that FBI Director Kash Patel? And why are they putting a medal around the neck of [Patel]? Is Kash Patel a Make-a-Wish man? Kid? Is that what this is? Listen, I’m not trying to diminish his condition. There is currently no cure for ‘Crazy Eyes.’”
On Sunday, USA’s Jack Hughes led the team to a 2-1 victory, scoring the winning goal in overtime and marking the men’s hockey Team USA’s first gold since 1980, when they beat Finland 46 years ago.
The sport has certainly gained some heat since Jacob Tierney’s Crave/HBO Max series Heated Rivalry has taken audiences by storm in recent months, a steamy TV adaptation of Rachel Reid’s homoerotic Game Changer romantasy hockey novels.
While female and LGBTQ audiences are hooked on the show’s depictions of love and sex, the success has seemingly translated to the actual sport, as the NHL has experienced a recent spike in ticket sales, and TikTok has rebranded hockey rinks as “boy aquariums.”
Meanwhile, with the show renewed for Season 2, Heated Rivalry star François Arnaud has called on the league to do better about showing its support for the LGBTQ community.