The Washington Nationals are up two games to none in the World Series. On Tuesday night, they had a loud group of supporters north of the border during Game One.
After the Capitals handed the Calgary Flames a 5-3 loss, the players went down the tunnel of the Saddledome.
They had only one thing on their minds.
“When we got the in the locker room the game was on the TV and I don’t think anyone showered, everybody was watching right until the final out,” Garnet Hathaway said to the Ottawa Citizen’s Derek Van Diest. “I love baseball so it’s exciting to have that and it’s exciting to see all the D.C. sports teams all come together, have each other’s back and root for each other.”
Nic Dowd added that “we like baseball to the point that right as the game ended (in Calgary) all the boys didn’t even wait to take off all their stuff and we were watching the game in our wet underwear in the training room, cheering them on and the boys gave a pretty big cheer when the game ended.”
The Capitals are currently engrossed on a five-game, 10-day road trip that will take them on a tour through four of the NHL’s seven Canadian teams. The Capitals’ final away game of the trip is on October 29, meaning the Capitals will not be in Washington DC for any of the Nats’ home games. Game Five, if necessary, is on October 27 and will be the final potential World Series game played at Nats Park.
Several Capitals players, such as Evgeny Kuznetsov, have been at multiple Nationals’ postseason games this October. Alex Ovechkin even threw out the first pitch during Game Four of the NLCS. The Nats have won eight straight games since then.
“Yeah. I just tell Kuzy, ‘It sucks we not be able to go to the game,'” Ovechkin said recently. “But we’re going to watch on the TV for sure. We going to give our energy to the team and the boys and hope they going to do it.”
The Capitals have shown their support in other ways. The team played Montell Jordan’s This Is How We Do It, a nod to Howie Kendrick, after they beat the Chicago Blackhawks. The training staff added the Nationals’ curly W logo to their locker room nameplates. They give out a Nationals’ batting helmet after every game to a deserving player who deserves recognition for their individual play. The Capitals broadcast team even made a Joe B Shark video to root the team on from afar.
Friday, the Nationals will play Game Three in Nationals Park. It’ll be the first World Series game in Washington DC since 1933. I’m guessing, somewhere, some way, the Capitals will be watching, rooting them on.
Headline photo: NBC Sports Washington
