Jack Hughes’s name is already in the history books. He scored a goal that will be remembered for the ages.
Hughes, 24, broke the tie in overtime for a 2 to 1 USA win over Canada at the 2026 Winter Olympics.
This earned USA the gold…the first since 1980’s everlasting ‘’Miracle on Ice.’’
Legends are made of this. Think Sandy Koufax. Yes, that sweet shot of Hughes was heard around the world. It broke Canada’s heart.
As a former Montrealer, I hear applause from the ghosts of Maurice ‘’Rocket" Richard and Guy Lafleur.
By golly, Hughes is Jewish.
Hughes? That’s his father. His mother is Weinberg….and there is more.
For their son, the crowd went wild. America erupted in gladness. Finally, a hero on and off the playing field. Consider his celebration of America at post-game interviews.
What a relief.
Not for him the griping and snarly reproach against home country that we have come to expect from some American ingrates abroad.
They cursed. He blesses. He blesses his country. He blesses his teammates. He calls them his brotherhood.
‘’I’m so proud to be an American," he says later in the locker room.
Humbly, he praised goaltender, Connor Hellebuyck, as ‘’the best man on the ice." This goalie saved 41 shots.
Is Hughes a Democrat? Is he a Republican? Who cares? He is an American. He is a mensch. What a unifying time this is when the USA needed it so badly, politics be damned.
So timely all this in the Age of Trump.
The media, most of them, find nothing to hang on him, nor against Team USA. So this too is a relief, when patriotism sweeps the entire country.
America needed a lift.
Even if he never scores another goal, Hughes has already achieved greatness, as one moment is all it takes, by the grace of G-d.
Yes, the Bar Mitzvah boy elevated the entire country.
You wonder why he was so emotional after the game, why he was in tears?
We see this in other athletes who have achieved something grand. First, raw emotion cannot be expressed into words.
Mostly, though, that championship moment may never come around again, ever. One chance is all you get.
Am i finished, the athlete asks of his future? Is this my first and last hurrah?
May Hughes go from success to success for himself and his country.
Now available, a collection of Jack Engelhard’s op-eds, “Writings."
Jack Engelhard writes a regular column for Arutz Sheva. Engelhard wrote the int’l bestseller Indecent Proposal that was translated into more than 22 languages and turned into a Paramount motion picture starring Robert Redford and Demi Moore. New from the novelist, the anti-BDS thriller Compulsive. Website: www.jackengelhard.com
From the esteemed John w. Cassell: “Jack Engelhard is a writer without peer, and the. conscience of us all."