Big time players make big time plays in the biggest spots, creating moments and memories that last a lifetime.
It’s a tale as old as time in sports. It’s why in the NYC metropolitan area, athletes like Eli Manning and Derek Jeter are as revered as they are. When the lights are the brightest, the stakes are the highest, and the pressure is the most intense, they find a way to come through and will their team to victory.
After scoring the golden goal to help USA Hockey win the gold medal, Jack Hughes is entrenched on that tier of elite level athlete. The second that Jack Hughes’s shot beat Jordan Binnington in overtime, his life forever changed as he (and the rest of the US hockey team) immediately joined that legendary pantheon that we put athletes like Michael Phelps and other Olympians in for coming through and becoming champions on the global stage.
Of course, this might all sound a little sanctimonious coming from me of all people. I made my thoughts on the Olympics perfectly clear. I’m not the type to get wrapped up in the pageantry of Olympic hockey. I don’t have that personal investment in USA hockey like I do the Devils. I didn’t want to see any Devils players at the Olympics in the first place. I also never questioned the legitimacy of Jack’s injury leading into the games (which turned out to be a strained groin). I simply pointed out that the optics of him playing in the Olympics after missing the Devils final few games before the break were dreadful given the timing.
But it was never about me or what I wanted.
The Olympics mean everything to the players. It’s something that was made crystal clear with how hard the players fought to get back to the Olympics in the first place in the years leading up this. It’s something you could see watching the games in a best-on-best environment. You could see what this meant to everyone involved as the games went on.
You could also see from watching the games that as the tournament went on, Jack Hughes kept raising his game to another level.
It started with the two assist performance against Latvia that could’ve been three helpers had one of the goals not been called back for goaltender interference. Jack continued to contribute on the scoresheet, earning the trust of Mike Sullivan and the USA Hockey coaching staff to where he carved out a larger role. He earned ice time on the second power play unit. He earned the opportunity to be on the ice in a 3-on-3 overtime setting against Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon, and Cale Makar with the gold medal hanging in the balance. He wasn’t just handed the keys to the kingdom. He was consistently one of the US’s best forwards throughout the tournament despite the limited ice time that comes with playing on a stacked roster. As the stakes got higher, he got better, and it all culminated with the golden goal to beat Canada and the now iconic photo of Jack with the American flag draped over his shoulders and his bloodied, toothless grin from ear to ear after taking a high stick earlier in the game.
Not bad for a player who’s biggest detractors like to tell me he’s too small and too soft to be a winning player.
Not bad for a player who I was told wasn’t good enough to play in big games. Or for a player who I was told couldn’t play in a format like this because he “struggled in Four Nations”. Never mind that Jack was fine and the counting stats would’ve been there had Auston Matthews not done his best “Ondrej Palat on Jack Hughes’ line” impression whenever a grade A chance he was fed died on his stick. If people watched the games, they’d know this.
Not bad for a player who I’m told “can’t defend” when….(checks notes)….Connor McDavid is bearing down on him with a full head of steam. Instead of closing the gap and assuredly having an elite skater like McDavid simply blow past him (which Jack literally said would happen postgame had he tried that), he kept his composure and did enough to force McDavid to the outside until he got in too tight on Connor Hellebuyck to do anything with the puck. Also not too shabby that Hughes was able to poke the puck away from Cale Makar to set up a 3-on-1 opportunity for the Americans. If he doesn’t make that play, it’s McDavid and Makar vs. Hellebuyck in a 2-on-0 situation and likely a Canadian win instead. It’s also not surprising that he then finds plenty of open ice to where all Zach Werenski has to do is find him and the rest is history.
Not bad for a guy I’m told is selfish, egotistical, insufferable, and/or obnoxious. Never mind that he was quick to give Connor Hellebuyck credit for being the best player on the ice for the Americans when he did the postgame interview with Kathryn Tappen. Or that he was quick to credit Dylan Larkin and Brock Nelson for killing the penalty he took late in the third. Or that he along with Quinn Hughes sent a clear message that that Toronto media should be talking about how Auston Matthews is a winner.
Weird how that guy who I was told couldn’t do X, Y, and Z did in fact do all of those things. Against the best players in the world. In that setting. On that stage.
Big time players make big time plays in the biggest spots, after all. Jack Hughes is a big time player. Perhaps even THE big deal as John Fischer used to say when he wrote for this website.
And yet there are those who think trading him for a late first round pick and magic beans will somehow make the Devils better? Come on now.
Maybe instead of wasting time talking about the things Jack Hughes supposedly can’t do, it’s time to start talking about the things he can do. Maybe it’s time we start holding the rest of the organization to the standard that we’re holding Jack to. Maybe it’s time for everybody else to raise their game.
I get that we are all frustrated as Devils fans by the current state of the team. The fact that its this much of a struggle for this team to even play in big games is a joke, considering the roster they have. One of the few saving graces the Olympics provided was visual evidence that Tom Fitzgerald and Sheldon Keefe are more responsible for the mess the Devils are in than the players are. It isn’t a coincidence or an accident that every Devils player looked better the last few weeks outside of Keefe’s system.
I get that Jack’s injury history is frustrating, especially when the injury that cost him a significant chunk of this season might be the dumbest possible injury conceivable. Jack Hughes injuring his finger at a team dinner in a Chicago steakhouse is supposed to be a somewhat amusing Mad Lib throwaway gag. Not an actual thing that happened.
But you don’t just give up on talent like that when things aren’t going well. You don’t try to run the guy out of town because there’s something about his game you don’t like.
You recognize that your best players are indeed worth building around because you can win with them. And you do whatever you need to do to get the right pieces in place to support them. It starts with a coach that plays to their strengths and a supporting cast that can play the Robin to their Batman.
As I mentioned last week with Nico Hischier, the problem with the Devils isn’t Nico Hischier. That goes for Jack as well.
The problem is that the New Jersey Devils, as an organization, have not done a good enough job surrounding them with the right mix of players to where they can legitimately compete for a championship.
That’s a failure on Tom Fitzgerald for the moves he’s made that haven’t panned out and the team not pulling the trigger on the move or moves to put the Devils on that tier of elite level NHL team. And while there is no replacing a Jack Hughes if he gets injured, the team falling apart as frequently as they do without him is all the proof one needs to see that the team assembled around him isn’t good enough. Great teams find a way to tread water and get by.
That’s a failure on Sheldon Keefe for running a system that has suppressed offense to the point where just about everybody on the roster has struggled this year. That’s not to say Sheldon Keefe is a bad coach. That’s not to say that his role in getting players like Jack Hughes to be more defensively responsible is a bad thing. But the Devils shifted so far from one extreme to the other going from Lindy Ruff to Sheldon Keefe where the true answer lies somewhere in the middle.
The Olympics served as a reminder that yes, Jack Hughes is an elite level player. Yes, you can win with him being a big part of the reason why. He’s worth taking the time to build around and making the investment in doing so.
It’s about time the Devils figure that out before the squander what they have.