Jack Hughes’ shattered smile caps golden goal as U.S. beats Canada 2-1 in overtime
jack hughes’ shattered smile drew wide attention Sunday after he scored the golden goal that gave Team USA a 2-1 overtime victory over Canada in Milan.
Jack Hughes' battered grin and the winning play
Moments after scoring the game-winner against Canada, Jack Hughes was photographed with the American flag draped over his shoulders, his right fist raised, hair sweaty and his face described as a bloody Jack-o-lantern, the image frozen just after he buried Zach Werenski’s feed to decide the 2-1 overtime game in Milan.
A violent sequence and quick return to the game
The New Jersey Devils center drew a massive four-minute power play when Canada’s Sam Bennett struck him with a high stick that knocked out at least three teeth from Hughes’s mouth, and later Hughes delivered a high stick of his own to Bo Horvat that nullified the remainder of the power play; Hughes said his first thought was to draw the penalty and that he looked on the ice and saw his teeth, yet he did not miss a shift as the overtime reached its climax.
A history of teeth and toughness
Hughes’s battered smile recalled a 2010 incident when Duncan Keith took a Patrick Marleau slap shot, lost seven teeth and missed just seven minutes after emergency repairs — Keith’s long-remembered line was “Long way from the heart. ” Vincent Trocheck downplayed the significance of teeth for players, saying, “It’s pretty easy (to move on), ” and adding, “You lose a lot of teeth as an NHLer. They get straighter as you lose them more. ”
From fourth-liner to Olympic hero
jack hughes began the tournament as a fourth-liner for Team USA after returning from a hand injury suffered at a Chicago steakhouse and having scored just one goal in his last 18 NHL games with the Devils; he finished with four goals and three assists in Milan, and his final shot was the decisive one. His brother Quinn Hughes called him “a freaking gamer, ” saying, “He’s always been a gamer. Just mentally tough, been through a lot, loves the game. American hero. ”
About the picture and the writer
The striking photo credit reads RvS. Media / Monika Majer / Getty Images, paired with a short note appended in the story: “Find the hidden link between sports terms. ” Mark Lazerus, who contributed contextual notes, is identified as a senior NHL writer based out of Chicago who has covered the Blackhawks and the league at large for 13 seasons for The Athletic and the Chicago Sun-Times and was named one of the top three columnists in the country twice in the past three years by the Sports Editors; his byline suggests following him on Twitter @MarkLazerus.
Team USA’s Olympic gold now stands; what happens next for jack hughes and the U. S. roster is unclear in the provided context.
