Tkachuk returns to the Panthers as a gold medal party awaits against the Maple Leafs

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Matthew Tkachuk is ready to go back to work. That doesn't mean he's ready to stop celebrating Olympic gold.

Tkachuk — part of the U.S. men's hockey team that won gold at the Milan Cortina Games — is in the Florida Panthers' lineup for their first post-Olympic game Thursday night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The Panthers are throwing a gold medal celebration and U.S. captain Auston Matthews, who also captains the Maple Leafs, is set to be part of it as well.

"I really think our team really showed what it’s like to be true Americans and the pride we played with and how we would do every single thing for our country," Tkachuk said, gold medal dangling from his neck. “So, the support we’ve gotten is incredible.”

It has been a whirlwind since Sunday for Tkachuk: an all-night party in Italy before a charter flight back to the U.S., more parties with the team in Miami on Monday, then a trip to the White House for the State of the Union with most of his Olympic teammates.

And life has been one big celebration for Tkachuk in recent years anyway, with a Stanley Cup win in 2024, another in 2025, a wedding in there as well — and now, gold.

“The hardest thing to do in sports is winning the Stanley Cup,” Tkachuk said. “You go through an 82-game grind and then your four playoff series, some Game 7s probably, and just the physicality and the travel and everything, it’s crazy. Whereas you could almost argue it over there at the Olympics, it’s so hard because it’s just one-game elimination.”

Tkachuk is one of seven Panthers players who won Olympic hockey medals: Brad Marchand, Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett won silver medals for Canada, while Anton Lundell, Niko Mikkola and Eetu Luostarinen won bronze medals with Finland. Panthers general manager and hockey operations president Bill Zito was part of the braintrust for the U.S. team in Milan, and equipment manager Teddy Richards had the same role for the Americans at the Olympics.

They'll all be part of Thursday's ceremonies.

“It’s a weird dynamic,” Marchand acknowledged. “Obviously we’re disappointed and you want a different outcome, but at the same time, trying to remember to be grateful for the incredible part of it all.”

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Referees try to break up a fight between Canada's Sam Bennett (9), United States' Charlie McAvoy (25) and Canada's Tom Wilson (43) during the second period of the men's ice hockey gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Canada's Sidney Crosby (87), Connor McDavid (97) and Brad Marchand (63) leave the ice following Canada's overtime loss to the United States in the men's ice hockey gold medal game at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

ADDS NAME OF CHILD United States' Matthew Tkachuk (19) carries Noa Gaudreau, following a men's ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

United States' hockey player Matthew Tkachuk signs autographs after arriving at Miami International Airport from the Milan Cortina Olympics, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

United States hockey player Matthew Tkachuk arrives at E11EVEN after the team won the gold medal at the Milan Cortina Olympics, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The family of independent U.N. investigator Francesca Albanese has sued the Trump administration over U.S. sanctions imposed on her last year for her criticism of Israel's policies during the war with Hamas in Gaza, saying the penalties violate the First Amendment.

In a lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court in Washington, Albanese's husband and minor child outlined the serious impact those sanctions have had on the family's life and work, including the ability to access their home in the nation's capital.

“Francesca’s expression of her views about the facts as she has found them in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and about the work of the ICC is core First Amendment activity,” the lawsuit says, referring to the International Criminal Court. That tribunal has issued arrest warrants against Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, over allegations of war crimes.

“At its heart, this case concerns whether Defendants can sanction a person — ruining their life and the lives of their loved ones, including their citizen daughter — because Defendants disagree with their recommendations or fear their persuasiveness,” according to the filing.

The State Department dismissed the lawsuit as “baseless lawfare” and defended the U.S. sanctions against Albanese as “legal and appropriate.”

"Francesca Albanese has openly supported antisemitism, terrorism, and has engaged in lawfare against our nation and our interests, including against major American companies vital to the world economy," the department said.

Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, is a member of a group of experts chosen by the 47-member U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva. She has been tasked with investigating human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories and has been vocal about what she has described as the “genocide” by Israel against Palestinians in Gaza.

Both Israel and the United States, which provides military support to its close ally, have strongly denied the genocide accusation. Washington had decried what it has called Albanese's “campaign of political and economic warfare” against the U.S. and Israel before imposing sanctions on her in July after an unsuccessful American pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post.

Stephane Dujarric, the U.N. spokesperson, said that the U.N. was aware of the complaint and “will continue to engage with the U.S. authorities to seek resolution” of the case.

Shortly after being sanctioned, the Italian human rights lawyer told The Associated Press in an interview about the effect it would have on her, both personally and professionally.

“My daughter is American. I’ve been living in the U.S. and I have some assets there. So of course, it’s going to harm me,” Albanese said last summer. “What can I do? I did everything I did in good faith, and knowing that, my commitment to justice is more important than personal interests.”

But the sanctions have not dissuaded Albanese from her work or her viewpoints. She has continued to issue scathing reports about Israel's activity, including one focused on what she said was the country's "genocidal economy” in Palestinian territories.

Danny Danon, the Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, said last year after one of her reports that “she has taken the word ‘genocide,’ born from the ashes of the Holocaust, and turned it into a weapon — not to defend the victims of history, but to attack them."

Israeli strikes have repeatedly disrupted the U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal from Oct. 10. There has been some progress, including the reopening of the Rafah crossing, but Israel and Hamas are divided over the timeline and scope of Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza and the disarmament of the militant group.

While special rapporteurs do not represent the U.N. and have no formal authority, their reports can step up pressure on countries, while their findings inform prosecutors at the ICC and other venues working on transnational justice cases.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Associated Press writer Michael Kunzelman in Washington contributed to this report.

Palestinians gather for iftar, the fast-breaking meal, during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Gaza City, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)

FILE - Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, is interviewed by the Associated Press in Rome, July 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, file)