Hockey Boy Wants His Hockey Puck

Whose puck is it? Jack Hughes's overtime goal to win Olympic gold is hockey history, maybe the single most important physical object in American hockey history. You could make the case for some Miracle equipment which surely smells awful by now, but that wasn't even the gold-medal game. The Hughes puck is a pure distillation, the sudden-death difference between defeat and world-champ status in one small, black disc of vulcanized rubber and entrance-fee bait. Any player would want it. Any collector would want it. Any hall of fame would want it. I wouldn't say no, if they'd like to give it to me. But who should have it? (I vote me.)

Well, start with who does have it. Possession is nine-tenths of the law, they say, so barring a daring Hughes Brothers midnight raid on the Hockey Hall of Fame, it's in Toronto and staying in Toronto. Jack, when asked about this on Wednesday, stirred the perfect silly 12-hour news cycle for a bored NHL limping to the end of its regular season.

"I'm trying to get it," Hughes told ESPN's Greg Wyshynski. "Like, that's bullshit that the Hockey Hall of Fame has it, in my opinion. Why would they have that puck?"