A lot has happened with Team USA over the last few days, and not all of it has been good. After the men's hockey team won its first gold medal in 46 years, the wildly celebratory mood was cut short thanks to Kash Patel crashing the locker room party and Donald Trump calling the team to workshop some objectively lame jokes about the women's team.
Since then, the vibes have shifted dramatically, and there has been a ton of understandable sociopolitical blowback and fallout. It's not, however, the only controversy that impacts the players or the Minnesota Wild.
On a level much lower than what happened in the locker room, there's the matter of players skipping out on returning to their teams to attend the State of the Union address.
Players who competed in the Olympics officially reported back to their teams on Tuesday, but all but five members of Team USA checked in. None of those players play for the Wild, as Quinn Hughes, Brock Faber, and Matt Boldy are all in Washington. All three accepted an invitation from President Trump to attend the State of the Union address rather than returning to practice.
That has understandably caused some concern about when they plan on re-joining the team, especially considering there's a pretty massive game against the first-place Avalanche just 48 hours away.
Wild associate coach shut down rumors that anyone will miss Thursdays game
As most players returned to practice on Tuesday, associate coach Jack Capuano addressed the media and the elephant in the room regarding three of the team's most important players. It's worth noting that head coach John Hynes also remains out, but it sounds like everyone is expected to be back in time for the game against Colorado.
Capuano set the record straight after some of his earlier comments suggested he was implying Hughes, Faber, and Boldy might miss Thursday's game because of their trip to the State of the Union address.
John Hynes is expected to return to run practice tomorrow, still TBD on Team USA players to rejoin but I don’t expect to see them tomorrow.
— Jessi Pierce (@jessi_pierce) February 24, 2026
Capuano asked if they could miss Thursday’s game: “Oh no, I'm not saying that. I'm saying I don't know exactly when they'll rejoin.”
That's still not exactly crystal clear, but it gets the point across that should quell some ongoing fears. Plenty has been said about members of the Wild parading around with controversial political figures in their moment of triumph, but the hockey element of this is still salient if not as charged as the rest of the story.
Minnesota heads into the second half of the season with a legitmate shot at reaching the franchise's first-ever Stanley Cup. Expectations have never been higher, thanks in large part to the acquisition of Hughes, and the margin for error is slim.
So too is Colorado's lead in the Central. What was once a resounding lead has slimmed to just a five-point difference between the Avs and Wild -- two teams that don't need any extra motivation to dislike each other.
Minnesota has a chance to trim that lead to just three points on Thursday, which is why the idea of not having three of the team's best players available is a hard sell.
While Capuano wasn't clear on exactly when the Olympic trio will be back, it at least sounds like they'll be in uniform in time for Thursday's big game. The good news is that the game is still two days away, and it's going to be hard to imagine Hughes, Faber, and Boldy needing to muster up energy after the incredible Gold medal journey they just went on.