JUNKIES: Nic Dowd looks back on his offseason ahead of the Capitals' 50th season beginning Saturday
The puck drops for the Capitals’ 50th season on Saturday, as they host the Devils at Capital One Arena, and Nic Dowd is back both on the front line for the Caps and as a regular Thursday guest of the Junkies this year.
He’s gonna need a walk-up song like all of our regular guests – will he go with “You Can Call Me Al” by Paul Simon as he does at Cap One? – but he’s ready to get going after an exotic offseason.
“Exotic meaning going down slides and stuff like that? That’s what you tend to do when you go on vacation with kids,” Dowd joked of his summer. “But we actually had a big summer, probably traveled more this year than we ever had. We went to Florida right after the season ended with friends, and then we summer in Minnesota; we have a house near a lake and went up there a couple times, and went to Montana in August, which was awesome. We had eight adults and nine kids under nine years old all under one roof! But it was all family and it was an awesome trip.”
Much-needed getaways after a tough end to last season, getting swept in the playoffs.
“With kids, you have a bad day and you get home and there's really no time to sour on your day because your kids don't care how bad your day was, they just want to be with dad or mom, so that helps quite a bit because you can lean on them,” Dowd said. “But this year was just tough because I felt like emotionally, we put so much into the regular season playing 22 games in 39 days where every one was a Stanley Cup playoff game for us – so to finally do it, and then we get in the playoffs and then we get swept, you're kind of like, wow, all this work was great, but that was the first time that I've ever been swept in my life.”
Dowd finally got over it once his family got to Florida soon after the season ended, as he was away from the DMV and the memory of the end, but now he’s ready to go – and happy to have a familiar face up front with him in Jakub Vrana, back after a few years away.
“Yeah, like it’s almost like he never left; I know a few years have gone by and he's played for two different organizations or whatever, but it's just like you see him walking around the hall and it's like, oh, what's up, man?” Dowd said. “It’s like you’re right back to where he left off.”
With all the roster turnover lately, Dowd is now creeping up the depth chart of elder statesmen on the team, so at 34 and in his seventh season in DC, he truly is a veteran.
“That is something different for sure. Age is just a number, and I don't like to talk about it too much, but I don't feel my age mentally, and I I've actually felt really good about where my body is and stuff and how I feel coming into camp,” Dowd said. “When Andrew Cristall was still up, we were going through it, and I was 15 years old when he was born. So, I mean, that's just nuts, right?”
Take a listen to Dowd’s entire visit above, which also has a little nickname game for the team!
