Media Bytes: The Land of Milk and Whiskey, Everything's Coming Up Trocheck, Fox's Future, Schneider
Media Bytes rounds up the latest Rangers chatter, from Trocheck dominating the trade board to growing questions about Adam Fox and Braden Schneider’s place in New York.
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The Land of Milk and Whiskey
1. Coming out of Team USA's thrilling overtime Olympic win on Sunday, head coach Mike Sullivan spoke the construction of his lineup and made a comment that's since been construed (or maybe misconstrued) as a shot at the players who didn't make the roster for Milan.
Team USA’s🇺🇸 head coach Mike Sullivan on the construction of this lineup: “The team was built with personality in mind… There are whiskey drinkers and milk drinkers, and we got a lot of whiskey drinkers.”
— Mollie Walker (@MollieeWalkerr) February 22, 2026
🥃🥛😁
The guys from Tri-State Hockey weighed in on the bubbling controversy, but they weren't exactly on the same page about how to read Sullivan's comments.
Jonny Lazarus kicked things off by saying he didn't see any other way to interpret it than as a shot at the guys who didn't get picked.
"I didn't take it that way," Mike Rupp said almost immediately. "I took it as, you need milk drinkers and whiskey drinkers—and we have a lot of whiskey drinkers." Rupp went on to explain that he saw it as an analogy for lineup balance: having different types of players who bring different elements to the table to create a diverse mix. "I didn’t think it was a shot at the guys who aren’t there," he added.
Arthur Staple agreed with Rupp, saying he also didn't view the comment as a jab at the players Team USA left off the roster for Italy. "You've gotta have a mix. You've gotta have role players. You probably know who he's referring to — but are the Hughes brothers 'whiskey drinkers' in this scenario?" Staple asked, rhetorically.
"Whether you're Cole Caufield, Jason Robertson, or Adam Fox, I don't think that's necessarily a shot at them," he continued. "But maybe one day someone can just ask Sullivan what he meant."
