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That Panthers celly with audio 🥲

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Another angle of Amarius picking Joe up ☺️

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PHI@NJD Jan 29, 2025

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UMM?!

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forehead kiss

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lak@njd | 16.02.24

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I am sorry for circling back to the podcast again but a bit I've been obsessed with is the whole convo before Will explains how he opened Mack up at rookie camp

Obviously the "everytime you play against someone for so long" (which we now have proof of!!). But also the way Mack says "you don't really love the guys you're playing against". Which is obviously just a saying, but allows for great reading-between-the-lines in an rpf perspective. And then Will's sassy "what, Mack?" when Mack says Will doesn't play physical. Followed by Mack's soft "it's not your game". So much there, truly

never apologize for circling back to the podcast which to MOI is lowkey the rosetta stone of the wackles first year. so much there. SO much there. actually a genuinely stunning little moment to ME. my fave mackism is him kinda moaning about will and then immediately walking it back. training camp style like 'i'm kinda siiick of him lol' when asked how much time they were spending together and then immediately without even taking a breath going 'no it's been AWESOME he's SUCH a cool guy' etc but this is very that vibe like got talked into saying he 'hated' will because he wanted old man demers to like him and it took on a life of his own and he was regrettiiiing it. going from 'i kinda hated him' to 'well you never LOVE the guys you play against' like okay....okay. and then mack kinda making fun of his lack of physical game and then toff joins in on making fun and mack's immediately like no <3 you cannot do that <3 only i love will enough to make fun of will's game <3 no one else can <3333 getting offended on will's behalf like that's not your GAME!!!!! you play a better much different much more enlightened GAME. some would say the kind of game only the BEST college hockey player ever would play!!! same vibe as the donkey comment where mack's laughiiing calling will a donkey and then cat's like is that what he's like and mack's immediately like excuse me female woman this is a joke only EYE can make idk why YOU would go around calling him a donkey he's the world's most special boy...??? it's SO good. i love that little bit so much ALSO. something i've been thinking about a lot is just how much that shared history seems to mean to mack. such a huge deal to him that will was there all those years. the way he keeps bringing it up.....i wonder why it's so important to him....

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would you like to share any thoughts about alex/jack?! sometimes i forget that they are sooo attached at the hip in the summer. and have been for, like, eight years running

You know what I WOULD thank you.

The thing you have to know is that Alex lived with the Hughes family for two years during the NTDP. They aren't brothers (Jack is too insane about his brothers to put anyone on that level), but he's also extremely enmeshed in their family. There is a "First Day of School" picture of them Ellen made them take I can't find, but this is pretty close:

Here's a pre-draft video of them that helped build some lore.

Unfortunaely, Alex struggled to really make it in the league for a few seasons (probably should have done a 2nd year of college and had bad injury luck) and as a result he kind of fell off of a lot of fandom's radar.

A few facts about them:

When Jack's name was called at the draft he went up a couple rows to hug Alex after his family (I cannot find videos, but if anyone has them please share!)

Alex (and Josh Norris, Quinn's +1) were in attendance at the family party when Luke was drafted

The thing with Alex is he's almost too earnest. It's a level of vulnerability that's hard to look right at sometimes. I think additionally the fact that he was languishing in the AHL while his buddies were thriving (remember when Trevor was thriving?) made the second hand embarassment even more palpable.

But he's been here the whole time!

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Man who has no interest in smiling or expressing any joy for a photo

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gosh his little smile/laugh at the end 😭🫂

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jack hughes’ love language is headlocks and i find that so endearing

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I have nothing respectful to say in regards to how Jack looks in this picture. I am no better than a man.

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smiley summer boy jack you have no idea how important you are to me

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i’m feeling things and all i can say is i’m trying so hard to be better than a man right now

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i don't know about you all, but i think about this every single day actually.

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