JUNKIES: Nic Dowd on the Capitals' Wednesday night win
Nic Dowd was a little late for his weekly appearance with the Junkies on Thursday, but as they say, better late than never – especially when coming off a huge win the night before.
“I was up at 7 a.m. with the children this morning, and I woke up thinking about it and I was like, man, I really gotta set an alarm,” Dowd laughed. “We were kind of knee deep in pancakes and my phone was on silent, and there you go.”
But, again, it’s coming off a 3-2 win last night, making it now all but two games they’ve scored three or more this season.
“Yeah, it’s nice to win, everyone likes to win, right?” Dowd said. “I think with the pieces that we added, going into the regular season, in my mind, what I had said was, well, if everyone performs how they could perform, we're gonna be a really, really good team. Saying that, that’s every team, right? Like, if everyone plays up to their caliber, on paper, most teams will be good teams, but you never have all the guys on the same page, maybe some are struggling. But for us, we’ve had guys play very, very well, and some of the younger guys have taken some big steps that have been really helping us out.”
Alex Ovechkin scored again last night, moving even closer to Gretzky, but another big key has been Dylan Strome, who had two assists last night and is now tied for third in the league in that category.
“Another guy that's arguably taking a big step. His line has been really, really good, and it’s great to see those opportunities that they set up go in,” Dowd said. “It’s really helpful to see probably the best goal scorer in history get off to such a good start; he’s been playing really well, flying out there. And Protas, he goes a little under the radar on that line because you have Ovi the goal scorer, and Stromer has been passing to the puck so well this year, but Pro does so many good little things that allow Stromer and O to get into those positions to score goals.”
So, too, does Connor McMichael, who had the third goal besides Ovechkin and Protas last night, and now has 13 points this year.
“He's obviously had a great start. He’s always had it in him to be a point guy and a Top 6 guy in the NHL – even back to his days in junior hockey, I believe he led the CHL in scoring one year,” Dowd said. “Watching him in practice, we knew that there was definitely some high offensive octane in him as a player, and again, people probably don't notice this as much because it's easy to notice the goals and the assists and the offensive zone time, but Mikey is taking big steps defensively, and I think that's what's allowed him to translate into having so much offense so quickly. He’s so responsible in his own end for a young player, which is hard to find.”
