It was a great pregame scene last night at Prudential Center as, of course, the Devils and their fans honored Jack Hughes, amongst others, as part of the U.S. men's hockey team winning the Olympic gold medal in Italy.

So the PA announcer introduces Jack to the crowd, and right away you get the loud USA chance breaking out.

And that's all happening as Jack skates over to the Sabres bench.

He gets Tate Thompson out there for his recognition as well,

which we're seeing now on CBS Sports Network, kind of arms around each other,

fist pumping to the crowd, which was great.

And then it's Jack alone at Center Ice,

and he is all by his lonesome in front of a packed house. Mike in hand and to Jerry's point almost sounds a little nervous. Yeah. You'd be nervous too. Yeah, but I'm just saying it's emotional. Yes, well that we get to that. But initially I think you hear a little bit of the humble nature and the nerves as you've got a 24-year-old basically speaking before the whole crowd here at the very start of this clip.

What's up, guys?

I'm so proud and I'm so happy that the men's and women's USA hockey teams brought gold medals

back to the United States for America.

So you hear the big cheers, the energy, the reaction of the crowd, and it did have him kind of feeling it all over again.

You guys are making me emotional, but I'm so proud to represent the New Jersey Devils organization.

And I'm so, so proud to represent the great state in New Jersey.

So proud.

So he's hitting all the right notes there, certainly playing to the crowd and then wrapping up his message. From the bottom of my heart, all my teammates, USA teammates, we just want to thank you guys for all the love and the support. We feel it. Thank you. And these guys have been on like a weak bender, man. It's been just one thing after the next. I can't even imagine how they could have played a hockey game last night. Well, I also mean, you say a week, but it's even less. Like it feels like it's been a week, but it's really been just a couple of days. And you mix in, you know, flying back internationally. Right, you think about the game. The game was in Italy on Sunday. And here we were Wednesday night. Yeah. In between the Miami 11 Club on Monday night, Tuesday night at the State of the Union address, and then Wednesday on the ice back in uniform for a hockey team.

And it was back to hockey after a world win couple of days. And he did, by the way, say he wasn't fixing his teeth anytime soon. Yes. The pregame chat with Bryce Salvador. Yeah. He's like, people got mad at me last time, so I'm going to let it go for a little bit. I did see that. I'll play that for you guys later on in the morning.

But yeah, back to hockey, and he and Tage Thompson to go from USA teammates.

Back to NHL foes rather quickly.

Here comes Krebs. Across line goes cross-ice in deep, and it's Thompson who scores.

And so the Sabres strike first, and they lead won nothing.

And of course, Matt Lockland Devils Radio is the Sabers built the 2-0 lead, they held on to beat the Devils 2 to 1. Jack did have an assist. He played 21 minutes and 25 seconds. He led all forwards in Ice Time, which I thought was very impressive. Devils turn around, visit the Penguins tonight, and then I believe I saw after the game, I believe he's flying to Indianapolis to be an in-studio guest on the McAfee show Friday. Would not surprise me. And by the way, Pat McAfee did a great thing, great gesture as he basically paid for the party down in Miami. Yes. $150,000. Yeah, not bad. Was he there part of the party? I don't think he was there. What I saw, I don't know if it was, you know, AI generate. You never know these days. But there's video out there, seemingly someone shooting with their cell phone of the U.S. guys in the club watching up on a screen. I guess McAfee, like, recorded a message for them.

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