Wild’s Olympic Hero Plays Hard, Parties Harder

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Minnesota Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes celebrating Team USA Gold Medal
Credit: Kevin Falness screenshot (X - @RadioFalness)

The 2025-26 NHL clock officially started ticking again at midnight ET, after Team USA beat Canada in overtime Sunday and took home Gold at the Winter Olympics for the first time in 46 years.

With the trade deadline now two weeks out, the next Minnesota Wild blockbuster could happen at any moment. But first, all the American “whiskey drinkers” will celebrate their historic Gold Medal until they board a flight Monday and head back to The States.

Between now and then, newly acquired Wild superstar and Olympic Hero Quinn Hughes plans to party harder than anyone else on Team USA, an itinerary that began immediately after the medal ceremony Sunday.

Someone get Quinn Hughes a drink while he defends a fellow American from bitter Canadian media

Quinn did a three-way postgame press conference with brother Jack and American captain Auston Matthews. In the middle, he could be seen asking someone off camera for another beer, pointing to his half-full bottle, then signalling “one more”.

Once his request was acknowledged, he snapped back to reality just in time to go after a Toronto reporter who was trying to bring Matthews back down to earth with a question on the Captain’s tough season as a Maple Leaf.

Thursday night, the Wild’s season resumes in Colorado vs the 37-9-9 Avalanche and their sore Canadian loser of an Alternate Captain, Nathan MacKinnon.

And after watching the clips of Quinn Hughes celebrating last night (below), it’s worth wondering if four days will be enough time for the 26-year-old American hero to recover from Olympic exhaustion, jet lag… and what is sure to be an EXTREME hangover.

New Minnesota Wild superstar Quinn Hughes goes so hard

About an hour after his press conference “beer me” request, someone thought it was a good idea for Quinn to do an interview on NBC where he 100% confirmed he got the beverage he was looking for earlier. It doesn’t sound like he had any issue finding more after that too…

During his iconic facetime on NBC, the eldest Hughes brother thanked everyone he could think of, which wound up being a bit more difficult than he probably thought it would be, going in. So when his internal list of thank-yous dried up, he did what any drunk American patriot would and thanked the troops.

I fell in love with Quinn Hughes shortly after he was acquired by the Minnesota Wild. The nation fell in love with him at the 2026 Olympics.

And during the celebration, he forever solidified himself in the hearts of blue-collared Americans everywhere who now would love nothing more than to belly up at a bar and slam a Busch Light with their new Olympic hero.

MN Wild vs Avalanche Thursday could be interesting

There’s no doubt MacKinnon, and Canadian Defenseman Cale Makar, will be hungry for any taste of revenge vs three main pieces of Team USA, in Hughes, Brock Faber, and Matt Boldy, especially when it would also mean pushing the Minnesota Wild further below them in the Central Division standings.

Despite how important Thursday’s game is, I could care less if the Minnesota Wild lose because of a literal Olympic hangover. The rush Team USA gave the American public on Sunday morning will live forever.

Win or lose vs the Avs, the Wild still have 28 games remaining in their regular season. A first round playoff bye would be great but what’s more important is what Bill Guerin does between now and the NHL trade deadline on March 6.

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