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\n Following his golden goal for Team USA and appearances on major TV shows, Jack Hughes has returned to the New Jersey Devils for the NHL season’s final stretch. The 24-year-old star wrapped up his media tour after stops including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.\n <\/p>\n
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NEWARK, N.J. \u2014 After being captivated by Lorne Michaels\u2019 behind-the-scenes tales from \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d and appearing alongside brother Quinn and women\u2019s team captain Hilary Knight on \u201cThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,\u201d Jack Hughes is shifting his focus back to professional hockey.<\/p>\n
The Olympic golden goal hero took to the ice Tuesday morning following his Fallon appearance, marking what\u2019s expected to be the final chapter of his celebrity media circuit since capturing America\u2019s attention in Milan. The New Jersey Devils star now turns his attention to the remaining NHL season.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe best couple weeks of my life and just a lot of fun celebrating with the guys and enjoying it,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cNow, after all this, it\u2019s in the rearview mirror for a little bit. We\u2019ll pull it out back in the summer. But yeah, it\u2019s back to Devils and locking back in here and trying to win some games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just over a week after netting one of the most significant goals in American hockey history, Hughes faces his next challenge: competing against Olympic teammate Matthew Tkachuk and the back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers. Hughes admitted the quick transition from teammate to opponent feels strange, particularly given the longstanding friendship between the Hughes brothers and the Tkachuk siblings, dating back to their youth hockey days.<\/p>\n
That connection has only grown stronger following their achievement of capturing the nation\u2019s third men\u2019s hockey gold medal and first since 1980.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we have that special bond of just accomplishing something so special that we\u2019re linked together forever,\u201d Matthew Tkachuk said. \u201cWe\u2019re brothers forever, champions forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Panthers head coach Paul Maurice, who has experience with champions after capturing consecutive Stanley Cups, remains uncertain how this newfound fame will impact Hughes. However, he couldn\u2019t help but notice the 24-year-old\u2019s image displayed on billboards throughout the journey from the team\u2019s Manhattan hotel to the New Jersey arena.<\/p>\n
Maurice drew comparisons between Hughes\u2019 moment and Sidney Crosby\u2019s golden goal for Canada against the United States in the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Unlike Crosby, who had already claimed a Stanley Cup, Hughes must wait at least another season to pursue hockey\u2019s most prestigious prize given the Devils\u2019 current standings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he becomes part of Stanley Cup champions, it will be as it was with Mr. Crosby: It\u2019ll be a wonderful thing to add,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cWonderful for our game. We should all celebrate that. How it impacts him, I think he\u2019s got lots of years to write a longer story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those close to Hughes remain confident the spotlight won\u2019t negatively affect his performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously he\u2019s really been around the map lately,\u201d younger brother and Devils teammate Luke said. \u201cI don\u2019t think one goal changes you. \u2026 I think he was just really happy to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following his golden goal for Team USA and appearances on major TV shows, Jack Hughes has returned to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[56123,56124,201,56117,56125,56119,56120,56118,56121,5,576,151,5185,5184,4,56122],"class_list":{"0":"post-483554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-102-3","9":"tag-102-3fm","10":"tag-devils","11":"tag-fine-day","12":"tag-fine-day-102-3","13":"tag-fine-day-fm","14":"tag-fine-day-media","15":"tag-fine-day-radio","16":"tag-have-a-fine-day","17":"tag-hockey","18":"tag-new-jersey","19":"tag-new-jersey-devils","20":"tag-newjersey","21":"tag-newjerseydevils","22":"tag-nhl","23":"tag-weller-radio"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116167537170847790","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483554","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=483554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}