Tampa Bay Lightning's Jake Guentzel Addresses Decision To Skip White House Visit

While a good amount of the U.S. men's hockey team visited the White House following their gold medal win over Canada in the Winter Olympics, a handful of players like Jake Guentzel opted to pass on the opportunity ... and the Tampa Bay Lightning winger said he was absent due to a "timing thing for me and my family."

Guentzel -- along with Brock Nelson, Kyle Connor and Jake Oettinger -- was not spotted when President Donald Trump welcomed the team to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to celebrate their huge win. But the Stanley Cup champion made it clear there was no political message behind it.

"I was definitely not denying the request to go," Guentzel said. "It was a dream come true to go, I was fortunate to go in 2017 when Trump was in office."

"We've got a lot of games coming up the rest of the year, gonna be a tough schedule," he continued. "So, two weeks of Olympic break, thought it good to come home, rest and recover and try to spend some time with my family before we get going."

Despite the members of Team USA partying their tails off since their win over Canada ... it's easy to forget there's still an NHL season to finish -- and games are set to resume on Wednesday.

Oettinger also came out and addressed why he was MIA from the White House event -- and just like Gunetzel -- he was just looking to get back with his team and be with his family.

"I have a huge stretch run. I wasn't playing much," he told a reporter. "I wanted to come back home and get ready to go. I also have a three-month-old baby at home who'd been traveling the world."