Photo credit: Andre Ringuette

Braden Holtby had a busy night in Thursday’s 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators. He turned away 35 of the 37 shots he faced for a sterling .946 save percentage, but he was definitely overworked. That was made clear at 4:27 of the second period, when Erik Condra bowled him over.

Typically that’s the part of the game where a teammate sticks up for his goalie and roughs up the offending player, but Holtby has always been a do-it-yourself kind of guy. He got back on hit skates and pounced on Condra like a cranky little kitty cat.

Condra got a goalie interference penalty for his trouble, and all Holtby got was the continued respect of his teammates and fans.

That wasn’t enough to inspire the Caps to victory though, as the Caps mustered up precious little offense — unable to convert Holtby’s superb performance into a win. The Caps skaters didn’t stick up for him when he get run over, and they didn’t give him any meaningful goal support either. They’ll have an opportunity to do better in Montreal on Saturday.

GIF by welshhockeyfan