Less than a month after joining the Golden Knights in a trade-deadline deal, Nic Dowd played a key role when Vegas went head-to-head against his former team.
Dowd scored his first goal since the trade on Saturday night, launching a nearly successful comeback effort against the Capitals.
“It’s not that [the goal] was against the Caps — I have no ill will to the guys over there,” Dowd said postgame. “Great group of individuals, just like in here. But honestly, it just felt good to get on the board and hear the building erupt and feel like you’re contributing.
“I think that’s the biggest thing. As a hockey player, you want to feel like you can contribute to the team. In that moment, that’s how it felt. We responded after that. It felt good, for sure. Anytime you get to score a goal in the NHL is a pretty nice feeling. You don’t get to do it very often. It’s pretty hard.”
After eight seasons in Washington, Dowd’s Capitals tenure came to an abrupt end on March 5, when the team traded him to Vegas for a pair of draft picks. He acknowledged on Friday that he was still processing the move.
“Emotionally, it’s still challenging on the daily,” he said.
That didn’t stop him from making a difference against Washington on the ice. During a Capitals power play midway through the second period, Dowd — once a fixture on Washington’s own penalty kill — seized on a defensive gaffe from Ryan Leonard, stripping the puck in the slot before beating Logan Thompson from the faceoff circle.
“We needed a spark at that time, and he stepped up and scored a big one for us,” said Rasmus Andersson. “The building got going, and the boys got going, so we just kept going after that.”
Andersson scored 25 seconds later on the same penalty kill, then Jack Eichel struck minutes later to erase what had been a three-goal Capitals lead. Though Washington ultimately prevailed in the shootout, the comeback effort gave Vegas a standings point in what could have easily become a blowout loss.
Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy highlighted Dowd’s goal as a key moment of the night.
“Well, it’s a turning point in the game for us, right?” he said. “It gave us juice and got us back in the game. Deflates the other team when you give up a shorty, never mind two. Get good pressure after that. We’re getting some good looks…It just gave us a lot of juice and got the crowd into it.”
Dowd’s goal came after a scary first-period collision between him and former teammate Aliaksei Protas. The two players’ heads crashed into each other along the boards, leaving Protas struggling to get up and Dowd bleeding on the ice.
Protas did not return to the game, while Dowd came back in the second period with a stitched-up gash above his eyebrow.
Dowd wasn’t too concerned about his injury when speaking to reporters postgame.
“I think with how it felt originally and the impact, I’m pretty happy with how it feels now,” he said.
Dowd now has five total goals this season and two points (1g, 1a) in 12 games with the Golden Knights.
