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Karl Alzner poses with milestone 500 consecutive games puck (Photo)

By Ian Oland

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January 14, 2017 2:27 am

Washington Capitals defenseman Karl Alzner became the first player in franchise history to play in 500-consecutive games, Friday night against Chicago. He also became the third defenseman since 1944 to do so.

And on a night where Braden Holtby and Jay Beagle starred in a 6-0 thrashing of the Blackhawks, it was Alzner, despite having only one shot on goal in 19:59 of ice time, who was the team’s first star.

After the game, Alzner even got the same treatment as Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin, who tallied their 500 assist and 1,000 point respectively over the last week. Alzner posed with the milestone puck that signified his 500th consecutive game.

Photo: @Capitals Instagram

After the victory, Alzner admitted to worrying about a freak accident occurring before the game, which would ruin his streak.

“We play basketball before the game sometimes to warm up,” Alzner said. “We were in there and I was thinking, ‘It would be quite the story if I were to slip and do something dumb while I was on the basketball court.’ But like I said, I’ve gotten this far and not thinking about it and just going and doing my thing so I can’t change that.”

Meanwhile, the Caps locker room tried to leave Alzner alone before the game.

“[The streak’s] not something we really talk about a whole lot,” Alzner said. “We’re all fairly superstitious and that’s one of things where – if a guy is playing his 1,000th game you don’t really want to talk about it until he actually gets out on the ice. It’s kind of the same thing. A couple of guys mentioned it a little bit earlier today. Other than that – we leave it alone. They know what I’m like.”

Full Coverage of Caps vs Blackhawks

Additional reporting by Chris Gordon.

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