Canes’ Slavin: Post-Olympic trip to Washington, White House was not to be missed
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Slavin wore his Olympic gold at both the White House visit and State of the Union.
- Twenty U.S. players attended the State of the Union; five skipped the Washington trip.
- Hurricanes return from Olympics and refocus on the NHL season.
Jaccob Slavin was back with the Carolina Hurricanes at the Lenovo Center on Wednesday. The Olympic gold medal the defenseman won with the U.S. men’s hockey team on Sunday hung from a ribbon around his neck.
Slavin also wore the medal a day earlier during the team’s visit to the Oval Office in the White House and again in the U.S. Capitol during Donald Trump’s State of the Union speech.
For some, the Washington visit may have been freighted with meaning beyond sports. Five players chose not to make the trip, though none cited politics as the reason.
For Slavin, it was an experience not to be missed.
“Regardless who the president is, not everyone gets that opportunity and privilege to be able to go and take part of so much history that has taken place at the White House and Washington, D.C.,” he said during a press conference Wednesday.
“For the guys who couldn’t make it, I think they wish they could have been there,” he continued. “But obviously we’ve got an NHL schedule coming right back up, and so people had to travel and get back home.”
The men’s Olympic team was the first in a series of “heroes” Trump introduced during a State of the Union speech that lasted nearly two hours Tuesday night. Slavin was among the 20 players who filed into the balcony of the U.S. House of Representatives, gold medals dangling on their chests, to a lengthy standing ovation.
“They beat a fantastic Canadian team in overtime, as everybody saw,” Trump said. “As did the American women, who will soon be coming to the White House.”
During a phone call Sunday when he invited the men’s team to Washington, Trump joked that he would “probably be impeached” if he didn’t also invite the women.
USA Hockey said the women’s team was unable to come to Washington for the State of the Union and a White House visit “due to the timing and previously scheduled academic and professional commitments.”
The women’s team won all seven of its games in Milan and won its third gold medal since women began playing Olympic hockey in 1998. Slavin said he watched the team’s overtime win over Canada with his family.
“Those girls were just dominant in that tournament,” he said. “It’s just amazing to see the state of U.S. hockey — where it’s at with men’s hockey, where it’s at with women’s hockey. You go 2 for 2 in ice hockey. It’s just awesome.”
Hurricanes come home with three Olympic medals
Slavin is one of three Hurricanes who returned to Raleigh with Olympic medals. Seth Jarvis won silver with the Canadian team, while Sebastian Aho earned bronze with Finland.
Slavin and Jarvis embraced on the ice after the U.S. sudden-death win over Canada on Sunday. Slavin said he knew what Jarvis was feeling, having lost to Canada in overtime during last year’s Four Nation’s Face-Off tournament.
“It’s really just one of those moments of where it’s like, ‘Love you. Great battle,’” Slavin said. “That’s all that’s really said in those moments.”
Jarvis said he might have said “some mean stuff” had it been someone other than Slavin.
“I just congratulated him on a great tournament, a great win,” he said. “I don’t really remember what he said. I was in a different space.”
Jarvis joked about selling his silver medal on Craigslist, saying it was an honor to play in the Olympics but that the medal is a reminder that his team came up short.
“We lost the last game, and that sucks,” he said. “It helps to be back with the guys and seeing everybody here, the practice today and the flow of things, just realizing that there’s a bigger goal we’re after now and everything shifts to this team and their quest for the cup.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2026 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Canes’ Slavin: Post-Olympic trip to Washington, White House was not to be missed."
