Another big one tonight for the Caps, who are in Toronto trying to keep the momentum rolling, stay ahead of Detroit in the Wild Card race while also trying to catch Philly for third in the Metro.
Dylan Strome is from the Toronto area, and when he joined the Junks Thursday for his weekly visit, he was looking forward to a homecoming where he won’t be seeing as many Strome fans as you might expect.
“Me and my older brother had a thing where when it was our first game against Toronto, we said basically any family that wants to come, we'll get you guys tickets and we'd love to see everyone out for the game, but the next time, we're just gonna get tickets for our parents,” Strome said. “So that first time I think it was like 20-25 tickets, which in Toronto that can add up pretty quickly, but from then on, we kind of just got them for our parents. I got maybe 10 or 15 people coming after the game today to say hi, but I don't have to get too many people tickets, which is always nice.”
The Caps have won six of seven, and tonight starts the final stretch of 11 games in 1x days where their 81 points are trying to hold off the Wings (79) and Devils (76), but also trying to surpass Philly (82) for a more advantageous seed – and, for Strome, the first chance to taste the NHL postseason.
“Every hockey player wants to play in the playoffs for sure. When you first make the NHL, you're just excited and happy to be there, but now, it's not very fun to go home every year in mid-April and watch these guys compete for the Stanley Cup,” Strome said. “I’ve gone to visit my brother when he’s been in the playoffs, and everyone in my family is watching and dialed into it, and of course you a little bit jealous. We're right there this year, not there yet by any stretch of the imagination but we’re battling, and we know we have to do these last 11 games: play good hockey and give ourselves a good chance.”
Strome has a five-game point streak going, including the GWG against Detroit that pushed Washington past the Wings, and he also knows it would be huge to continue to come up clutch down the stretch.
“It feels great for sure; I don’t know what's going on there, I had never scored an overtime goal in my career up until this year and now I have three of them,” Strome laughed. “I think it's just when you get an opportunity, you want to prove to the coach that he put the right guys out there at the right times, and it's been fun. I'm getting a lot of shifts in overtime, so just trying to take make the most of it and help the team win. We got a pretty good thing going here and I think everyone's chipping in at the right times.”
Indeed, and a testament to the way the team has bonded throughout adversity this season.
“I think we're kind of coming together at the right time. It sort of feels like even when we're down a goal or two, there's no doubt in our mind that we're gonna come back, and that's a great feeling to have,” Strome said. “It feels like we’re in every game no matter what the score is, and we're playing good hockey. We have good team chemistry going on right now, we’ve lost some guys for whatever reason, but we've kind of just bonded together and became a really close team, and I think the results on the ice are showing.”
Take a listen to Strome’s entire segment above, which includes thoughts on the improved Power Play, Connor McMichael’s development, and more!