Hilary Knight is the face of women's hockey. Lately, her face has been everywhere.

In the last three weeks, the American superstar has been all over the country, the airwaves and the internet celebrating Team USA's gold medal victory in Pyeongchang. She's been on Ellen's couch, posed for a team picture on "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon, and took part in a "Saturday Night Live" skit, grinning and laughing next to Leslie Jones.

Now that the Team USA media tour is over, Knight is back to doing what comes most naturally to her: playing hockey. She signed with Les Canadiennes de Montreal of the CWHL just in time for the 2018 Clarkson Cup Playoffs. Knight may finally have her Olympic gold medal, but as long as there's hockey to play, she wants to be out on the ice.

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In a wide-ranging Q&A, Sporting News caught up with Knight to discuss life as an Olympic gold medalist and her mission to create a sustainable future for professional women's hockey.

Note: Portions of the interview have been edited for brevity and clarity.

SPORTING NEWS: What do you think when you read and hear, Hilary Knight, Olympic gold medalist?

HILARY KNIGHT: I don't even believe it's true. It's been a dream.

SN: Where do you keep something like a gold medal?

HK: I really don't know. All of us were so adamant about sharing it with everybody that it's sort of just been in my bag traveling around the country. It's always a good TSA conversation starter when you're going through the airport.

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SN: What was 'SNL' like?

HK: It was amazing. I describe it like another gold medal experience. It was super fun. Also, you still get those pregame jitters, which I thought I couldn't get doing something else. It's reassuring (to realize), 'OK, this happens in other areas too.' Leslie Jones is obviously amazingly talented. She made it super easy for me to sit there, laugh, and joke around on TV.

Special appearance from gold medalist @HilaryKnight on Update tonight. #SNL pic.twitter.com/b1SghUJxsz — Saturday Night Live - SNL (@nbcsnl) March 4, 2018

SN: Were you and the team aware of Leslie Jones' tweets and could you hear her from the stands?

HK: We snuck out to watch the men's U.S. team play OAR and we ran into her there. We told her, 'You've got to go to our game!' We took a picture with her and she ended up coming to our game. She was leaning over the tunnel just screaming at us, which was the most hilarious thing any of us had ever heard. I'd never seen so many smiles on the bench when we're trying to win a game that we needed to win to get to the gold medal game. It was pretty cool.

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SN: After the media tour that had you traveling all over the country, how good was it to get back on the ice in Montreal?

HK: Hockey's always been my safe place. It was such a great opportunity to come back and play with some good players and to just go out there and have fun — that's why we all started — with the added bonus of helping to grow the game. I've been graciously accepted with open arms up here. The fans have been fantastic. I'm really excited for the playoffs this weekend.

SN: You've won a Clarkson Cup, an Isobel Cup, gold and silver at the Olympics and all of those world championships. Is joining a team just before the playoffs a new challenge for you?

HK: Oh yeah, it's a big challenge. Because of the language component, I've been trying to learn more French so I can participate in more conversations, listen in drills and (respond to) feedback. The systems here are totally different from what I've been playing. It's been a really fun challenge. The other night I was playing center and I hadn't played center in over 10 years.

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SN: I'm sure it was interesting when your Montreal teammates had you skate out on your own for warm-ups the other night.

HK: The girls thought it was so funny and I was like, 'Look, I've already played professional, I don't have to go for a lap!' It was all lighthearted. It was fun.

SN: Recently there's been a lot of talk around the CWHL and the CWHLPA about the #OneLeague movement. Do you feel that one league is better than two?

HK: Yeah. Right now the talent is being dispersed, the fans are being dispersed, and the resources are being dispersed. When you're trying to grow a sport and make decisions that other sports have had to make in a smaller amount of time to grow a professional league you need all the help you can get. We need to collaborate our efforts and build something sustainable.

The future of professional women’s hockey is brighter than it has ever been. Now is the time to work together with the @NHL to secure #OneLeague where the best in the world can compete. @NHLPA — CWHLPA (@CWHL_PA) March 8, 2018

SN: It's been something of a wild ride from the 2017 world championship protest to USA's first gold in 20 years, and now returning to the CWHL to play in Montreal. What's next for Hilary Knight? I imagine it's a tricky thing to achieve your lifetime goal before you're 30 years old.

HK: It's funny one of my friends in the NHL texted me, 'You have the trifecta! You've accomplished everything in your sport, what are you going to do?' My short answer is to just keep going. There's things to do as a professional. I want to help lend a voice when I can to create something sustainable. And there's the marketing component where we're trying to put women's ice hockey on the map, but we're also trying to combat the statistic of media coverage dropping in women's sports.

Another piece of the pie is younger girls dropping out of sports at young ages. How do we combat that? I look at all of that and think I have my work cut out for me. There's so many things I want to tackle and help with. Anything that can impact other people's lives in a positive way is something I'm interested in.

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SN: We saw just how big of an impact the Nagano victory had not just in the United States, but all over the world. What do you think comes next for women's hockey?

HK: Honestly a lot of it starts at the professional level. When we figure that out we're going to see more registration numbers, more people signing up, and more people thinking this can be a real career. This isn't just, 'Let's go to college and try to figure it out after.' This can be, 'Let's go to college and let's go pro.' That's going to take care of a lot of the girls' development and hopefully force resources to be leant to other countries that are developing their hockey programs as well.

It's great for the sport that the IIHF is expanding (the 2022 Olympics to 10 teams) and opening the tournament up to more teams. I'm hoping we get a good bump in registration numbers all over the world, but also marketing dollars and funding to help support the development of hockey players