{"id":399244,"date":"2026-01-10T11:17:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T11:17:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/399244\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T11:17:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T11:17:17","slug":"why-a-simple-act-from-a-team-captain-embodied-what-it-means-to-be-a-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/399244\/","title":{"rendered":"Why a simple act from a team captain embodied what it means to be a leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story is part of Peak, The Athletic\u2019s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak\u2019s newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In the first minute of Sunday\u2019s game against the Carolina Hurricanes, New Jersey Devils defenseman Luke Hughes redirected a shot by Nikolaj Ehlers into his own net.<\/p>\n

Almost instinctively, Hughes raised his gloved hand to his head, stunned. A wave of boos began to sweep through the Prudential Center.<\/p>\n

In the second period, Hughes lost the puck in the crease when Canes left winger Taylor Hall tapped it off his stick, and it deflected into the net for another Carolina goal. The crowd erupted in boos this time, and they stuck. Fans continued to boo the 22-year-old every time he touched the puck. The Devils lost 3-1.<\/p>\n

As the players headed for the locker room, Devils captain Nico Hischier requested to speak to the media, according to Devils reporter Amanda Stein. He wanted to say something about Hughes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can tell if someone makes a mistake and he\u2019s obviously not feeling great about it,\u201d Hischier told reporters. \u201cAs a teammate and also as fans, you have to embrace that he\u2019s obviously not happy with that as well, and booing doesn\u2019t help.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a game of mistakes. \u2026 Us teammates fully stand behind Luke, and he\u2019s a great player.\u201d<\/p>\n

I came across Hischier\u2019s interview by accident while checking Instagram but stuck around to watch the full clip. I was curious how an expert might diagnose the situation and Hischier\u2019s reaction, so I reached out to Dr. Brad Kirkman, a professor at North Carolina State, the next day. Most sports fans would probably recognize Hischier\u2019s moment after Sunday\u2019s game as an example of leadership \u2014 for Kirkman, it was textbook.<\/p>\n

Kirkman has spent decades studying what leaders should do when things go wrong. He boils it down to four components every strong leader should embody when navigating unexpected adversity:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Team confidence: Does your team collectively believe it can overcome obstacles that get in the way? Does it have confidence in itself, but also in every member of the team?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Teamwork roadmap: If adversity strikes, does everybody know what they\u2019re supposed to do, and do they know what their other team members are supposed to do in the situation?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Capacity to improvise: When things go wrong, is the team creative enough, and flexible enough, to improvise and find a solution with what\u2019s in front of it?<\/p>\n

\u2022 Psychological safety: How safe do members of the team feel to talk openly and honestly about their mistakes, their failures and constructive criticism of other team members?<\/p>\n

Kirkman said Hischier\u2019s leadership in that moment was effective for three reasons: He addressed the situation quickly, vocalized his confidence in Hughes to bounce back and balanced his support with a call for Hughes\u2019 improvement. (Hughes also took accountability for his play with reporters after the game: \u201cI made a couple of mistakes tonight and I got to be better.\u201d)<\/p>\n

To Kirkman, timing matters most after failure. Waiting a day or two to publicly support Hughes could have left him stuck in the moment, especially as younger, less experienced players can sometimes feel overwhelmed, Kirkman said.<\/p>\n

Care and concern from a leader \u2014 an idea Kirkman notes was rarely discussed years ago \u2014 has become central to building strong teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Luke needed him to do that, even though he probably didn\u2019t ask him to,\u201d Kirkman said. \u201cJust from watching Luke\u2019s interview, he really needed a leader to step up and come to his aid and be supportive and show that high level of care and concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

What really mattered in Hischier\u2019s response, though, was the balance between support and accountability. Leaders need to demonstrate both, but too much of either can cause problems.<\/p>\n

In this case, Hischier never let Hughes off the hook or gave any hint that he was not responsible for what had happened. As he said to reporters: \u201cHe\u2019s got to learn from that, and I know he will.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Hischier had been overly supportive, Kirkman said, projecting nothing but love and togetherness, it would have felt artificial and false. By acknowledging Hughes\u2019 mistakes while voicing support for him and his ability, he struck a perfect balance.\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n

And if there\u2019s anything Kirkman has learned, it\u2019s that there\u2019s often much more value in that than we realize.<\/p>\n

\u201cSaying, \u2018Yeah, Luke\u2019s going to take responsibility, and he\u2019s a great teammate,\u2019 took two minutes,\u201d Kirkman said. \u201cYou might think that\u2019s small and, sure, people are going to forget about it, but Luke won\u2019t forget. And the team won\u2019t forget, either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for Peak\u2019s newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is part of Peak, The Athletic\u2019s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[201,5,576,151,5185,5184,4,717,273],"class_list":{"0":"post-399244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-devils","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-new-jersey","11":"tag-new-jersey-devils","12":"tag-newjersey","13":"tag-newjerseydevils","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-peak","16":"tag-sports-business"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115870527926092665","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}