Nate Schmidt played for the Capitals but now he doesn’t. Now he plays somewhere else instead. Although 73 percent of our readers really wish we wouldn’t, we’re going to sometimes keep tabs on Nate, and here’s where we’ll do it.
Welcome to Talkin’ Schmidt.
The Vegas Golden Knights beat the Arizona Coyotes in their home opener on Tuesday night. The Knights are now 3-0-0, almost halfway to tying Washington’s inaugural season tally of eight wins. Can they get there? They only have 78 more chances.
In that game, as noted by Just-okay Tweet Pat, Schmidt led his team in ice time with 21 minutes. Despite being a nominal second pairing D, Schmidt has had the most ice on the team so far with 62 minutes.
Schmidt’s also leads the Knights defense in power-play time with just under 13 minutes through three games. That’s more PP time than Schmidt got in 60 games with the Capitals last season (9.5 minutes).
On Saturday, playing on the road in Glendale, Schmidt scored his first goal as a Knight, an empty-net game-tying goal that had the markings of destiny.
Fate itself pushed that rebound to Schmidt, but it was Schmidt’s own hand that put it in the net. It was his first regular-season goal since April.
But that’s unimportant. This is important: Schmidt wore a double-breasted coat to the home opener.
Full circle as college roommates Nate Schmidt and Erik Haula arrive together. #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/LKowsS8pkB
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) October 10, 2017
Brilliant!
Note the subtle plaid. Note the sophisticated complement the almost-matching tie/pocket square combo lends to the the coat color. This is a visionary performance from Schmidt, who obviously spent his summer studying at the altar of another fashion-icon defenseman, Pernell Karl Subban.
This has been Talkin’ Schmidt. This series is not going away, so don’t even complain about it.
Headline photo: Norm Hall
