The Daily Mail received a statement from an FBI spokesperson, who said Patel’s trip to Italy was for business and “planned months ago.” Patel opted to make time to attend the two men’s hockey games and, according to social media video, was in the locker room after Sunday’s win. Patel appeared in an Instagram Live video with men’s hockey player Dylan Larkin and appeared in other videos celebrating with a beer in hand.
While in the locker room, Patel connected the team with Trump via phone call, where Trump invited the team to the State of the Union.
“I could send a military plane or something, if you would like to,” Trump can be heard saying over the phone held by Patel. “It’s the coolest night.”
“We’re in,” one player responded, and a number of them agreed.
Trump continued: “The nice thing about being president I can tell you, is you don’t have to worry about the weather or landing.”
He said they would plan a White House ceremony — “we have medals for you guys” then said: “I must tell you, we’re going to have to bring the women’s team, you do know that.”
He followed with: “I do believe I would probably be impeached” if he didn’t invite the women, who won gold over Canada on Thursday. The remark got big laughs from the room.
Trump then said he’d leave Patel in charge of coordinating the trip.
“I got it boss, I got it,” Patel said. “I’m on it, I’m [expletive] on it.”
Trump was particularly impressed by the performance of Team USA goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, who finished the Olympic tournament with the best save percentage of any goalie competing.
“I’m going to shake hands with everybody,” Trump said, “but I got to shake hands with that goalie.”
Earlier, during the postgame press conference, US head coach Mike Sullivan brought up the call.
“[Trump] just spoke to the group, expressing how proud he was of the group and congratulating everybody on the win,” he said. “Obviously this game, in a lot of ways, was an inspiration to our country.”
Sunday’s gold medal is the first for the US men’s team since 1980.
“We’re all proud Americans, obviously,” team captain Auston Matthews said. “This is a huge moment for us, a huge moment for the United States.”
As for making it to Tuesday’s State of the Union, that’s still up in the air. The team was scheduled to fly back to New York but, because of the blizzard, will travel to Miami instead. The NHL resumes play on Wednesday. Hellebuyck’s Jets will be playing in Vancouver and Olympic hero Jack Hughes and the Devils host the Sabres. Charlie McAvoy and the Bruins return to action on Thursday at home against Columbus.
“We’ll see what happens,” Matthews said Sunday. “It’s an honor to wear this jersey and represent the US. To go home with a gold medal. You know how much that means to guys in this room, to people watching and rooting us on, too.”
Katie McInerney can be reached at katie.mcinerney@globe.com. Follow her on Instagram at @katiemac.sports.
