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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.

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Grandfather recovering from surgery after bison attack at Yellowstone sent him flying

By WTOP Staff
(CNN) — What started as a yearly trip for a grandfather and his grandson turned into a visit to a Montana hospital after a bison attack at Yellowstone National Park.Carl McDaniel, 65, was hospitalized with a broken femur after a bison charged and tossed him into the air Friday evening at the park’s Bridge Bay Campground, according to McDaniel and the National Park Service.He was visiting the park with his 13-year-old grandson when they decided to take a walk after dinner.Along the way, they encountered a large bison that appeared to be rolling around in the dust and was not bothering anyone, McDaniel told CNN.“We were about a hundred yards away,” McDaniel said. “He was not aggressive; he was not having problems and we took some pictures and decided to walk on.”McDaniel and his grandson snapped a quick photo and continued with their walk, video of the encounter shows. At the same time, a truck drove by, and the driver laid on his horn in what appeared to be an attempt to get the bison to move, McDaniel said. There is no audio on the video.The bison then appeared to become agitated and began running toward the pair.“There was little time to decide what to do. At that point, he was within 100 yards; he could be to us in seconds, so I told my grandson to run in one direction and I went the other to try and draw him away,” McDaniel said.The animal then pushed McDaniel with the top of its head, sending him flying into the air before he hit the ground, the grandfather said.“When I was on the ground immobile, unable to move, he was right on top of me. He could have stomped on me, he could have gored me, he could have done almost anything to take my life, and he did not do so,” McDaniel said.After McDaniel hit the ground, photographer Mike MacLeod, who captured the encounter on video, had to step in, he told Cowboy State Daily.“I was really afraid he was going to gore the guy on the ground, so I stopped videotaping and ran at the bison, yelled loud, and was trying to be as big and intimidating as possible,” MacLeod said.After the bison took off, people rushed over to McDaniel, who was in a lot of pain, MacLeod told Cowboy State Daily. Yellowstone EMS arrived soon after, he said.“Park emergency medical personnel responded and transported him to a nearby hospital,” the National Park Service said in confirming the incident in a statement to CNN.This is the second bison attack at Yellowstone this year. A 12-year-old was injured near Mud Volcano on June 26, according to the agency.After Friday’s attack, “all the people that were there were amazing; they were all positive, they were trying to help as best they could,” McDaniel said. A nurse started tending to his leg, while another bystander held his head.He was then transferred to a hospital in Bozeman, a two-hour journey during which he was in intense pain. He said he was grateful for the paramedic who helped him along the way.McDaniel broke his femur, the body’s strongest bone, in four places near his hip and suffered several bruises. He had surgery Sunday and could stand by Monday.“I will be doing physical therapy for the next few days to get to walk, but it was not as catastrophic as it could have been,” McDaniel said.The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards away from bison at all times and to never approach the animals. “If the bison follows you, spray bear spray as you are moving away, and seek cover behind nearby trees or cars,” the agency said.Correction: An earlier version of this story understated how far visitors should stay away from bison. The National Park Service advises visitors to stay at least 25 yards from them.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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