Nic Dowd was not on the ice for Alexander Ovechkin’s 895th career goal Sunday, but he had a pretty good look at that – plus the sea of red Caps jerseys in the crowd – from the bench.
But one thing he revealed about that moment that we DIDN’T know: the Caps kind have internally talked about a friendly competition of who would feed him the puck for the record?
It was Tom Wilson and Dylan Strome getting the helpers, so they are part of history, but now that it’s over, there’s one more celebration tonight as they return to Cap One – and then it’s time to get serious as the playoffs approach,
“I don't think we were necessarily like changing our systems or guys were playing too differently at any given time, but you know, if Nic Dowd's out there trying to force Ovi the puck, like guys are out there trying to force him the puck, right?” Dowd said. “But I definitely think that it will take some pressure off of O, and he can worry less about that. And, it’ll be nice to honor him and continue with our goal – we know that this is a team that’s built on everybody playing their best hockey to be successful. We need all 12 forwards, six D, and both goalies. No one cheats, everyone's in it for the team; our team success is more important than individual success, and when you've seen the Capitals at their best, it's been because we've been a detailed team that understands that we have to do the hard things to win hockey games.”
Listen to Dowd’s entire visit with The Junkies, his final visit of the season, above!