If you won the gold medal for your country in the sport you dedicated your professional life to, who would you think of first?
Your mom and dad?
Your grandparents?
Your first coach?
Maybe your girlfriend, especially if she’s a world-renowned pop idol.
Or maybe your brother, who is on the team with you.
Well, Jack Hughes had a different answer to that question.
After the 24-year-old star forward for the NHL’s New Jersey Devils won Olympic gold for the United States of America, he was asked who the first person to come into his mind was in the seconds after realizing he’d won it for his team.
Instead of picking his brother Quinn, who is also on Team USA, or his alleged girlfriend, Tate McRae, he went with someone that not many would have expected.
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Another overtime hockey hero for the Americans at the Olympics.
“Oddly enough, Megan Keller,” Hughes answered after thinking about it for a moment.
A few nights prior, it was Keller, in a 1-1 game against Canada, who scored the game-winner in a 3-on-3 overtime to bring gold back to Team USA.
Hughes told a story about how he saw Keller last night before his own gold medal game and congratulated her on the victory, not knowing at the time it would foreshadow his own golden moment.
After giving his required post-game interviews, Hughes and the rest of the Americans partied in the locker room before embarking to Olympic Village with the overtime hero on their shoulders.
It was a career-defining goal for Hughes, a former No. 1 draft pick and the face of the Devils franchise. He’s battled through numerous injuries in his career, but has shown that he is one of the best hockey players in the world when fully healthy.
Keller won this round. Quinn and McRae can hope for a playoff winner, or even better yet, a winning goal for the Stanley Cup.
