The NHL season is just a few days old, and it’s safe to say that we have a frontrunner for “Awkward Moment of the Year” already.
This one comes courtesy of New Jersey Devils star Jack Hughes and ESPN analyst AJ Mleczko.
The Devils hosted the Philadelphia Flyers for their season opener at the Prudential Center. After the first period, the Devils were down 1-0, and Hughes was called over to do an interview with Mleczko, who was stationed between the benches.
Hughes offered the usual interview platitudes and seemed to be pleased with how his team was playing.
But then Mleczko decided to make a joke about the Team USA golden goal scorer’s injury history, including an infamous moment in which he sustained a cut during a team dinner.
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How did it go? Well, about as well as a dog fart at a wake.
Cue the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” music.
It’s a rough one, and you’ve got a clear line of demarcation, with some going after Mleczko for making the joke.
Others said criticism of her was misogynistic or saw it as an opportunity to go after Hughes for laughing at a joke the president made after the gold medal game.
Personally, I think it was a perfect storm of awkwardness. Just an accidental mixing of social bleach and ammonia.
I think Mleczko is a really solid broadcaster, and everyone has moments where they say something they wish they could grab out of the air and pretend it never happened.
Any analyst who tried to make that joke would’ve ended up with egg on their face too.
Buuuuuuut…
Hughes is not known to be one of the more gregarious NHLers. If you make a joke like that, someone like the Flyers’ Trevor Zegras or Florida’s Brad Marchand would field it and probably volley one back in the other direction.
I think Mleczko’s biggest mistake was taking the wrong approach with the wrong player.
Who cares? Everyone goofs up.
But it is also weird to take an awkward moment, tie it back to an unrelated and overblown moment from months earlier, in a vain attempt to build a narrative that just doesn’t seem to be there.