Hughes Brothers "Embarrass" Rangers with Heartwarming Family Goal

As the New Jersey Devils quite literally said across social media on Monday night, hug me brother. On Monday, December 2nd, the Devils traveled across the Hudson River to face their biggest rival the New York Rangers. While at Madison Square Garden, New Jersey completely wiped the floor with the Blueshirts in a 5-1 victory.

Seven Devils players tallied points — Jesper Bratt, Dougie Hamilton, Johnathan Kovacevic, Dawson Mercer, Ondrej Palat, and both Hughes brothers. Superstar Jack Hughes logged two goals and one assist for a total of three points, while younger brother Luke Hughes logged two assists for two points.

While all of this is undoubtedly impressive for the Devils squad, there was one moment in particular that pulled at the heartstrings of New Jersey fans.

In the second period with the Devils already up 3-0, Luke Hughes's shot was deflected. Jack Hughes came in for the rebound with a quick spin out of the corner, scoring with 7:22 remaining in the period.

The brother-to-brother goal was actually the center's 10th of the 2024-25 campaign. His second goal of the night came at the end of the second period with a wrist shot. This closed out the scoring at MSG — making the final score 5-1. His assist was earned at the 9:04 mark of the same period off of Hamilton's slap shot goal.

Clearly, the second period was quite busy for Jack. All of his points were earned in those 20 minutes.

Luke Hughes's other assist on Monday came earlier in the matchup. In the first period, Mercer gave the Devils their second goal of the night on a snap shot with the assist from Luke.

The last time the brothers' duo connected was for the overtime winner versus the Flyers during the 2023-24 season. This goal was a reversal from the one scored on Monday, with Luke Hughes being the one to take the feed from his brother to get the puck in the back of the net.

Flashing back to the Hughes brothers' play in the recent game against the Blueshirts, Rangers broadcaster and former goaltender Steve Valiquette made some comments that have made shockwaves throughout the league community. Valiquette was referring to Jack's first-period breakaway when he tried to use a one-handed move on Rangers' goaltender Igor Shesterkin, often referred to as the "Forsberg."

“That should send a shockwave to everybody on the bench. I know in my day, Colton Orr would have been hanging over the bench banging his stick saying, ’I’m coming after you because you tried to embarrass us,’” Valiquette said. “And that’s blatant disrespect and I’m sort of surprised I didn’t see a response from the team that way ... I think the Rangers should be upset about that.”

Valiquette also went on to say that particular play from Jack was "more Instagram hockey than intense hockey."

""What did he say? Yeah, I mean, I don't even know what that means. Like, what does that even mean?""

Jack Hughes, postgame at MSG, Dec. 2

Call it embarrassing the other team if you want, but we're sure if you were to ask the Hughes brothers — they'd simply call it winning a National Hockey League Game.