New Jersey Devils star center Jack Hughes didn’t appreciate questions about his health and injuries last season, and he doesn’t appreciate jokes about it now.
The Devils opened their 2026-27 NHL campaign against the Philadelphia Flyers at Prudential Center in Newark. In the first intermission, Hughes hung back for an interview with ESPN’s AJ Mleczko.
“We got 40 minutes to go, so we’ve got to keep working at it,” Hughes said in a now-viral clip posted by Pete Blackburn.
And then, it took a turn for the painfully awkward.
Welp that was awkward pic.twitter.com/surGRvDYtu
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) October 1, 2026
“Well, it’s great to see you healthy,” Mleczko said. “Let’s wrap you in bubble wrap and use plastic cutlery this year. Does that sound good?”
As a big smile spread across Mleczko’s face, Hughes’s blank expression and silence were deafening. After a beat, he said, “I mean, I think that’s a weird joke,” before skating off.
“Well, no sense of humor here in a big game, but I appreciate his time, and he had a good start this season,” Mleczko said.
If you’re wondering why Mleczko would advise Hughes to use plastic cutlery, she was likely referencing Hughes’s “fluke accident” hand injury he suffered while at dinner with Barstool’s Frank “The Tank” Fleming last November. But that’s just a guess.
Hughes seemed to forget his tense interaction with Mleczko pretty quickly. He scored the game-winning goal in overtime to seal the Devils’ first win of the season.
JACK HUGHES CALLS GAME IN OT 🔥
Threw his stick over the glass to celebrate 😭 pic.twitter.com/3lLWBFV1TU
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 2, 2026
Hughes’s opening-night heroics were reminiscent of his overtime goal to win Team USA the gold medal over Canada at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics in February, which led to plenty of cringe media moments for Hughes and the USA men’s hockey team.
About Megan Armstrong
Since first getting published as a student by the Kansas City Star in 2013, Megan Armstrong has gone wherever curiosity and stories have taken her, specializing in sports, media, music, and culture coverage. She also has an extensive background in interviewing and profiling public figures. Her work has appeared in Billboard, Boardroom, Bleacher Report, Esquire, GQ, GRAMMY.com, NYLON, Newsweek, Teen Vogue, The Hollywood Reporter, UPROXX, and elsewhere.