Ever since they first broke onto the radar, the trio of hockey-playing Hughes brothers have been a goldmine for social media content.

A trio of top-10 picks in 2018, 2019, and 2021, Quinn, Jack, and Luke Hughes have certainly earned their fair share of fans across the hockey world who aren’t afraid to put out any sort of tweet about the sibling squad.

But today’s storyline comes from a photo of Vancouver Canucks defender Quinn Hughes wearing a headset in an interview looking much like he often does: a little red in the face, a little bit exhausted, and a little bit dead in the eyes.

But was it Quinn? Or was it actually his younger brother, Jack, the New Jersey Devils forward?

Twitter user @itsmarchmarney likened the photo to “The Dress,” the viral sensation in 2015 where a photo of a striped dress was interpreted by about half of any audience as white and gold, whereas other people would see it as blue and black.

Have a look a the photo of this Hughes brother, and see for yourself which NHL star it actually is.

Do you all remember “the dress”, that dress that looked blue and black but also somehow yellow and gold?

Anyway this photo is that, but with Hughes brothers. pic.twitter.com/iczrdFFpe6

— katie (@itsmitchmarney) March 14, 2023

Jack won the poll about which brother it was, edging out Quinn by about two percentage points.

DO NOT LOOK IT UP. Guess.

— katie (@itsmitchmarney) March 14, 2023

There was plenty of reaction to the initial tweet comparing the photo to “The Dress,” as well as the Yanny/Laurel phenomenon where people would hear vastly different words on the same audio clip.

look in his eyes and tell me you see hope. tell me you see a soul. you can't. you can't look into those eyes and then tell me that this isn't quinn hughes https://t.co/wwARM0djr1

— juniper (@JuniperKate1) March 14, 2023

i stared at this for ten minutes and STILL got it wrong https://t.co/KkUUPmjilf

— j⁷ ༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽ (@teadlanes) March 14, 2023

so close it’s Yanny Hughes actually 🥰

— katie (@itsmitchmarney) March 14, 2023

I’m guessing Quinn but i actually have no idea omg https://t.co/77xKKSqCo2

— p (@86leclercs) March 14, 2023

This is Jack and am 100% sure https://t.co/yNZdA6RW9R

— Passion™ Haver Jana (38-17-8) (@Jana168771) March 14, 2023

All I can say for sure (this time) is that it's NOT Luke https://t.co/lhK3oWVQkF

— k (hockey era) (@blackgiraffes) March 14, 2023

the more i look the more i second guess myself

— Luci (@hallucinating02) March 14, 2023

jack has never looked this Haunted https://t.co/vkhcZAOf6S

— Hannah Stuart (@HockeywthHannah) March 14, 2023

I’ve literally never in my life thought they even looked related until I saw this picture lol https://t.co/aZamn5zryX

— kaity (@kaitybella) March 14, 2023

The answer: it’s actually from a tweet from user @eliizott, showing Quinn in an interview with Sportsnet during a recent Canucks game. While it’s not the clearest photo, both the Canucks’ TD jersey patch and the tip of its classic “skate” logo can be seen on Quinn’s jersey.

WOOF WOOF BARK BARK BARK GRR WOOF GRRRR MEOW SNARL BARK RAHH BARK pic.twitter.com/Qrt3ThwbSw

— aj🧍🏼‍♀️ (@eliizott) March 14, 2023

Twitter user @19TH0RNTON went so far as to make a diagram of why the photo is clearly Quinn, offering a breakdown of his facial features.

i feel deranged making this up but COME ON PEOPLE pic.twitter.com/D1Sun1XiPX

— tanner (@19TH0RNTON) March 14, 2023

We’re not exactly sure what we learned from this exercise, except maybe a) brothers can look alarmingly alike, even if it’s only from certain angles, and b) we’re probably all spending way too much time on social media.

We can’t wait until the next optical illusion comes up from a set of NHL brothers on different teams. Your turn, Brady and Matthew Tkachuk.

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