{"id":868117,"date":"2026-10-02T09:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-02T09:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/868117\/"},"modified":"2026-10-02T09:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T09:56:15","slug":"jack-hughes-calls-out-espn-reporter-for-mid-game-interview-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/868117\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Hughes calls out ESPN reporter for mid-game interview joke"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A.J. Mleczko made a joke that cut Jack Hughes a little too deep, causing an awkward moment in the middle of Thursday\u2019s Devils season opener against the Flyers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Speaking with the ESPN analyst at the start of the first intermission, Hughes did not seem to like a humorous comment that Mleczko made <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/15\/sports\/devils-jack-hughes-undergoes-surgery-out-eight-weeks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">referencing the freak accident<\/a> that happened during a team dinner last year that forced him to undergo surgery and miss time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, it\u2019s great to see you healthy. Let\u2019s wrap you in bubble wrap and use plastic cutlery this year. That sound good?\u201d she asked, clearly trying to joke around with the American hockey star.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But Hughes was not in the joking mood and pushed back on the attempted quip.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, I think that\u2019s a weird joke mid-game,\u201d he said before skating away.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It could be understandable why Hughes wasn\u2019t in a joking mood at that moment after a first period that saw the Devils trailing the Flyers, who had been shellacked 7-0 by the Penguins in their season opener the previous night.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The injury may still be a sore subject for Hughes, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/11\/14\/sports\/devils-jack-hughes-out-after-fluke-injury-at-team-dinner\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">who ended up missing 18 games<\/a> during the 2025-26 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"41099069\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/jack-hughes-86-new-jersey-143367914.jpg\" alt=\"Jack Hughes of the New Jersey Devils skates with the puck on the ice.\" class=\"wp-image-41099069\"\/>Jack Hughes (86) of the New Jersey Devils skates during the first period of a game against the Philadelphia Flyers on October 1, 2026, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. NHLI via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Reports indicated that Hughes suffered the injury that required finger surgery during a team dinner that involved him getting cut by glass.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>At the time, Hughes was off to a hot start, scoring 10 goals and 20 points through his first 17 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Following the comment and Hughes\u2019 reaction on Thursday night, Mleczko tried to transition away from the interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.86914063;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\"   data-modal-image=\"41099083\" width=\"513\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/GettyImages-1068395922.jpg\" alt=\"New York Rangers assistant coach Kelly Pannek smiles as she walks on the ice during a game against the New York Islanders.\" class=\"wp-image-41099083\"\/>Former Olympic hockey player A.J. Mleczko works the game between the New York Islanders and the New York Rangers at the Barclays Center in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on Nov. 15, 2018. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo sense of humor here in a big game, but I appreciate his time and he had a good start here this season,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hughes became a national hero earlier this year when he scored the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/02\/23\/opinion\/jack-hughes-cements-his-place-as-an-olympic-and-american-hero\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">game-winning goal in the gold medal game<\/a> against Canada to secure the United States\u2019 first Olympic gold medal in men\u2019s hockey since 1980.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And he became a Devils hero on Thursday night when he scored the game-winning goal 3:23 into overtime to lift New Jersey to a 3-2 win over the Flyers in the season opener. <\/p>\n<p>Hughes tapped in the winner after receiving a pass from Jesper Bratt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A.J. Mleczko made a joke that cut Jack Hughes a little too deep, causing an awkward moment in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":868118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[352,152840,4822,385,99,3015],"class_list":["post-868117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-espn","tag-jack-hughes","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-sports-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=868117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/868117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/868118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=868117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=868117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=868117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}