{"id":456437,"date":"2026-02-13T03:59:58","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T03:59:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/456437\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T03:59:58","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T03:59:58","slug":"devils-star-shows-out-in-olympic-debut-reacts-to-playing-with-brother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/456437\/","title":{"rendered":"Devils Star Shows Out in Olympic Debut, Reacts to Playing with Brother"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Jersey Devils<\/a> star forward Jack Hughes<\/a> has a lot to prove in the 2026 Winter Olympics. He\u2019s off to a good start as of Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Team USA routed Latvia in a 5-1 victory during their first preliminary game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hughes registered two primary assists on two goals by Colorado Avalanche<\/a> forward Brock Nelson in 11:14 of time on ice across 16 shifts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hughes is playing in the fourth line with Nelson and a rotation between New York Rangers forwards J.T. Miller and Vincent Trocheck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hughes also saw time on USA\u2019s second unit power play.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Devils star forward looked more engaged on Thursday vs. Latvia than he has perhaps since before he became injured in November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He dominated puck possession and certainly elevated his line ages with some elite playmaking.\u00a0 Hughes was even effective in the neutral and defensive zones applying pressure on the forecheck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hughes made his Olympic debut alongside his brother, Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes<\/a>. The Hughes and Tkachuk brothers are the first set of siblings in a USA Olympic roster since 1964.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The oldest and middle of three Hughes brothers even got a few shifts together, and nearly connected for a goal after they put in a skating clinic weaving through Latvia with puck possession.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On playing with his older brother Quinn, Jack explained the instant chemistry.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, we go to the same spots a little bit. \u2026 I wanted to play with him all night. It\u2019s so fun to be doing give-and-gos with him, playing off each other,\u201d Jack said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We won\u2019t overreact to one game against Latvia. However, this is the kind of start Devils fans wanted to see from their star forward.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Team USA plays again on Saturday vs. Denmark at 3:00 P.M. ET and hope to see the dominance continue then, and after the preliminary rounds when the games matter most.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\"avatar\"<\/p>\n

\t\tJames is a fully credentialed New Jersey Devils beat reporter for New Jersey Hockey Now on Sportsnaut and the … More about James Nichols<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Jersey Devils star forward Jack Hughes has a lot to prove in the 2026 Winter Olympics. He\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[3189,201,3723,5,1272,54125,576,151,5185,5184,4,106,1496],"class_list":{"0":"post-456437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-2026-winter-olympics","9":"tag-devils","10":"tag-devils-news","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-jack-hughes","13":"tag-mens-olympic-ice-hockey","14":"tag-new-jersey","15":"tag-new-jersey-devils","16":"tag-newjersey","17":"tag-newjerseydevils","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-nhl-news","20":"tag-quinn-hughes"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116061326650919644","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456437","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=456437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}