{"id":5940,"date":"2026-02-26T23:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=5940"},"modified":"2026-02-26T23:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T23:36:14","slug":"tkachuk-sanderson-say-they-have-nothing-but-respect-for-u-s-womens-team-as-mens-team-faces-backlash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=5940","title":{"rendered":"Tkachuk, Sanderson say they have nothing but respect for U.S. women&#8217;s team as men&#8217;s team faces backlash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"ttsIcon-cIBsl\"><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Listen to this article<\/p>\n<p>Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"toggletip-tKLKF ttsToggleTip-DSCNQ\"><button type=\"button\" class=\"toggletipInfoButton-yoX4E\" aria-label=\"More information\" aria-controls=\":R89qnl:\" aria-describedby=\":R89qnl:\" aria-expanded=\"false\"><svg width=\"24\" height=\"24\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" focusable=\"false\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><path d=\"M11 7H13V9H11V7ZM11 11H13V17H11V11ZM12 2C6.48 2 2 6.48 2 12C2 17.52 6.48 22 12 22C17.52 22 22 17.52 22 12C22 6.48 17.52 2 12 2ZM12 20C7.59 20 4 16.41 4 12C4 7.59 7.59 4 12 4C16.41 4 20 7.59 20 12C20 16.41 16.41 20 12 20Z\" fill=\"black\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/p>\n<p>The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Two Ottawa Senators faced some tough questions in the locker room Wednesday about the backlash against the U.S. men&#8217;s hockey team they were part of over their behaviour after winning Olympic gold.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. men&#8217;s team has come under fire due to a video showing several of the male players laughing while on a call with U.S. President Donald Trump where he joked that he&#8217;d &#8220;have to&#8221; invite the women&#8217;s team to the White House, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ahead of their first game back on Canadian soil, Brady Tkachuk and Jake Sanderson each told reporters they had nothing but respect for the women&#8217;s team \u2014 who also won Olympic gold against Canada \u2014 but said they got caught up in the moment after their win.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think, you know, looking back at it now, I think it was a mistake,&#8221; Sanderson said when asked about how the men&#8217;s team acted on the call, which happened in the men&#8217;s locker room as the team was celebrating their win.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But I think things got blown out of proportion a little bit. You know we have nothing but the utmost respect for the women.&#8221;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Tkachuk made similar comments when asked about the call, saying some of his best memories from the Olympics were hanging out with the women&#8217;s team and cheering them on in their tournament.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They know that we supported them throughout the whole tournament.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When pressed about why, then, players were laughing at Trump&#8217;s comments on the call, Tkachuk said: &#8220;I don&#8217;t really have an answer.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Honestly, it was just a whirlwind of a moment that you can&#8217;t really control what somebody says,&#8221; he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I guess I was caught off guard a little bit.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Senators captain spoke Thursday ahead of the team&#8217;s home game against the Detroit Red Wings at the Canadian Tire Centre, where the Senators were also hosting women in sport night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Both players said they hadn&#8217;t spoken with any of the U.S. women&#8217;s team players about the video. <\/p>\n<p>In an<!-- -->\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/story\/_\/id\/48033965\/hilary-knight-responds-trump-comment-women\" target=\"_blank\">interview with ESPN&#8217;s SportsCenter<\/a>\u00a0<!-- -->on Wednesday, women&#8217;s team captain Hilary Knight said she found Trump&#8217;s comment distasteful. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And unfortunately that is overshadowing a lot of the success \u2014 the success of just women at the Olympics, carrying for Team USA and having amazing gold medal feats.&#8221;<!-- -->  <\/p>\n<p>She added that<!-- -->\u00a0<!-- -->the men&#8217;s and women&#8217;s teams have a\u00a0genuine level of support and respect for each other that&#8217;s &#8220;being overshadowed by a quick lapse.&#8221;<!-- -->  <\/p>\n<div><em><strong>WATCH |  U.S. women&#8217;s hockey players asked if they felt disrespected :<\/strong><\/em><span><span class=\"mediaEmbed\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"player-placeholder-ui-container  \" data-cy=\"player-placeholder-ui-container\">\n<div class=\"player-placeholder-video-ui\" title=\"Team USA women's hockey players asked if they felt 'disrespected' by Trump phone call\" style=\"--aspect-ratio:1.7778;--max-height:800px\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\">\n<div class=\"player-placeholder-ui\">\n<div class=\"video-item video-card-overlay\" title=\"Team USA women's hockey players asked if they felt 'disrespected' by Trump phone call\">\n<div class=\"thumbnail-wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.cbc.ca\/ais\/1b15e092-1c07-4582-a64f-d415e79859b3,1772051362974\/full\/max\/0\/default.jpg?im=Crop%2Crect%3D%280%2C0%2C1920%2C1080%29%3BResize%3D620\" srcset=\"\" alt=\"\" class=\"thumbnail\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/div>\n<div class=\"video-card-overlay-container\">\n<div class=\"video-info-container\">\n<p class=\"video-item-title\">Team USA women&#8217;s hockey players asked if they felt &#8216;disrespected&#8217; by Trump phone call<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"media-caption\">Team USA women&#8217;s hockey players were asked Wednesday whether they felt &#8216;disrespected or slighted in any way&#8217; by Donald Trump&#8217;s phone call to the men&#8217;s team, in which players laughed as the U.S. president joked about having to also invite the women&#8217;s team to the White House. Defensive player Caroline Harvey said the call is &#8216;not something we&#8217;re focused on&#8217; and that they&#8217;re happy to bring home Olympic gold.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<h2>Tkachuk speaks out against AI-doctored video\u00a0<\/h2>\n<p>Tkachuk also said he did not appreciate an AI-doctored video shared by the White House that made it appear he was disparaging Canadians, calling it fake and not something he would ever say.<\/p>\n<p>The altered clip, shared by the White House&#8217;s TikTok account, inserted fabricated audio of Tkachuk referring to Canadians as &#8220;maple syrup eating f&#8212;s,&#8221; with the expletive bleeped in the video.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I would never say that. That&#8217;s not who I am.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He also denied being the voice heard shouting &#8220;close the northern border&#8221; during Team USA&#8217;s congratulatory phone call with Trump.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been seeing stuff where people think it&#8217;s me. If you watch the video, it&#8217;s not my voice and it&#8217;s something that I never say,&#8221; Tkachuk said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I play here and I&#8217;ve given everything I have here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Olympic gold medal-winning U.S. men&#8217;s hockey team visited U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Tuesday afternoon and later received about a two-minute bipartisan standing ovation during his state of the union address that night.<\/p>\n<p>The women&#8217;s team were also invited to the White House, but declined the invitation, citing scheduling issues.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/ottawa\/ottawa-senators-us-mens-olympic-team-backlash-9.7107449?cmp=rss\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5941,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}