At the business end of he NHL regular season, the games matter more and when a rivalry game is also a big one in the standing, it means even more, and loses sting even greater, Washington Capitals forward Nic Dowd said this week.
"They're definitely not created equal," Dowd said during his weekly appearance with 106.7 The Fan's Grant & Danny, which is presented exclusively by our partners at MainStreet Bank — Cheer Local. Bank Local. Put Our Team in Your Office.
"When you get down to the end of the season or you're playing and there's certain situations that game [a 4-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins] was a big game for the standings and playoff potential," he said. "I also think when you play a team like Pittsburgh that you have a lot of rivalry with and that you've had a long time really since [Alex Ovechkin's] been here and [Sidney] Crosby, playoffs, they have a lot of history there. So, all of the losses are not created equal. That was an emotional game."
He added: "It was tough. Those are tough to swallow, especially this time of year. But I think going forward, basically every single game is gonna feel like that for us."
Dowd spoke to Grant & Danny on Wednesday before the Capitals' 2-1 shootout loss to the New York Islanders and their 5-1 defeat at the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday. Washington entered the weekend seven points behind Pittsburgh for the final Eastern Conference Wild Card spot with six games remaining.
And the 32-year-old knows the uphill climb is tough, but not impossible for the Capitals.
"Yeah, I wanna win all six games," Dowd told Grant & Danny. "We play all very good teams coming up, some teams that are ahead of us in the standings that are really close to us. So, yeah, these games are huge games.
"I think to give ourselves a shot we have to play our best hockey in every single game that's coming up here."
In 62 games for the Caps this campaign, Dowd has 25 points (13 goals and 12 assists) while averaging 13:17 minutes of ice time per game. Dowd is fourth on the Capitals with 128 hits and third in faceoff wins (417) and faceoff win percentage (51.7, minimum 50 faceoffs).
The Capitals host the New York Rangers on Sunday with a 1 p.m. puck drop that can be heard on The Team 980.
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