US Olympic gold medalists Hilary Knight and Quinn and Jack Hughes appear on ‘Tonight Show’
NEW YORK (AP) — Jimmy Fallon made fun of Jack Hughes for getting a tooth knocked out before scoring his Olympic-final overtime goal and praised Hilary Knight for winning at her fifth Games as the U.S. gold medal-winning hockey players made another late-night television appearance after returning from Milan.
Knight, Jack Hughes and brother Quinn Hughes shared the stage on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” on Monday night, 48 hours after their memorable cameo alongside women’s golden goal scorer Megan Keller on “Saturday Night Live.”
Asked what was more nerve-wracking, playing in the Olympics or going on “SNL,” Knight responded without hesitation: “SNL.” Fallon brought up how Knight told her mother at age 5 she wanted to take part in Olympic hockey one day.
“I’m just dialed like that,” Knight said. “We didn’t even have women’s hockey in the Olympics at the time. I just must have seen it on TV and was like: ‘That’s what I’m doing. I want to play hockey.’”
Fallon read a letter Jack Hughes wrote to himself before being selected with the first pick in the 2019 NHL draft that included the lines: “Maybe we all represented the United States at the Olympics. Maybe we won a gold medal or gold medals together. What an honor that would be.”
The three players then fist-bumped as the studio audience, including youngest brother Luke Hughes, applauded.
The Hughes brothers joked about being roommates in the athletes’ village — and their interaction after Jack got high-sticked in the mouth by Canada’s Sam Bennett in the third period of the gold-medal game.
“Quinn, he was the first guy closest to me, and I remember him coming up to me at the TV timeout, and he was like: ‘It’s not that bad. it’s only chipped,’” Jack Hughes said. “That was like four minutes left in the game, like when we were serious trying to win this thing and he came up and said that.”
Jack Hughes promised Fallon the gap-toothed smile “won’t be my thing,” even after the hockey storybook finish of losing a tooth and scoring an Olympic-winning goal.
“That is the most hockey thing I could even think of ever happening in the world,” Fallon said.
Fallon also brought up Knight’s storybook time in Milan that included getting engaged to U.S. speedskater Brittany Bowe, who was in attendance. He wondered aloud why she chose to propose on a grate instead of the nearby grass and asked Knight if she worried about dropping the ring.
“Almost,” Knight said. “I like high-pressure situations, I guess.”
Knight won her second Olympic gold medal at age 36 in what she has said will be her final time on the biggest international stage in sports. She did so playing with a torn medial collateral ligament in one of her knees, something she revealed earlier Monday on “CBS Mornings.”
“I’m not walking around the best, and I’m missing a few games for the (PWHL’s) Seattle Torrent,” Knight said on CBS. “To be able to play through injury was definitely a mental sort of gymnastic challenge for myself and also physical, but we’ve got some amazing support staff that did their best to get me out there and perform at my best — as best as I could.”
Knight tied the final against Canada with just over two minutes left in regulation. Knight, teammate Kendall Coye Schofield and Canada’s Erin Ambrose were all put on long-term injured reserve by their respective PWHL teams upon returning for the resumption of the season.
___
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics