When the Washington Capitals defeated the Philadelphia Flyers in the final game of the regular season, the team clinched an improbable playoff spot despite sporting a minus-37 goal differential.
After hugging victorious goaltender Charlie Lindgren, the pumped-up Capitals walked down the tunnel of Wells Fargo Center and returned to the locker room.
It was there they turned on Eric Church’s “Talladega,” singing along as they got out of their hockey gear.
“talladega nights >>>” wrote the Capitals on Twitter, eliciting responses from the racing league and track.
The vibes are immaculate! 🙌
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) April 17, 2024
you love to see it🤘
— Talladega Superspeedway (@TALLADEGA) April 17, 2024
With NASCAR racing at Talladega Superspeedway this weekend, could the song be an offshoot homage to that? Or was it something deeper?
“So this is something that maybe started… You know what? I’m going to bite my tongue,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery told RMNB’s Katie Adler on Friday, declining to answer specifics. “I — normally, that’s a players’ thing. If they want to comment on that, they can. But I’ll leave that alone. That’s their thing. Yeah, something post game that I think started maybe halfway through the year.”
Adler followed up with a member of the Capitals staff the next day to ask who might know more, but they told her they couldn’t say anything, either.
If anyone was going to spill the beans, she figured it might be Dylan Strome (two-time Caps media good-guy award winner).
“Oh, I think it’s just a good song,” Strome said Saturday, deflecting the question. “I think you’re going to have to ask Chucky on that one. He’s got the scoop on it.”
But alas – Lindgren was already done speaking to the press as the Capitals headed up to New York for the first two games of their first round series. The story behind the song remains a mystery.
Lindgren, whose goal song is not country, became the unlikely hero for the Capitals this season as the team’s original starter, Darcy Keumper, faltered. Lindgren made 28 of 35 starts after the All-Star/bye week break, notching a 16-10-3 record with a 2.73 goals-against average, .908 save percentage, and four shutouts in his 29 total appearances.
The 2014 hit from Church was the fourth single from his album The Outsiders. Originally written about Daytona (but Talladega worked better), Church explained that the song was more about experiencing something memorable together.
“It wasn’t about the race. It was about the experience of the people experiencing the race,” Church said, per Whiskey Riff. “You mentioned earlier about, you thought you were missing out on life if you weren’t. That’s it. That’s the whole thing.
“It’s not about racing… could it have been football, could it have been soccer. It doesn’t matter. It’s about being with the people and experiencing that and letting that be a memory marker for their life. And that’s really what it was.”
Lindgren, especially recently, has been sentimental about his opportunity with the Capitals. After years of toiling in the minors and serving as an NHL backup, he’s arguably been the Capitals’ MVP as he’s battled and kept the team in games.
“Playing games like this, I’ve been dreaming of this moment for 20 years, honestly,” he said Monday night. “Since I’ve been playing. [These are] the kind of games where 10-year-old me, thinking about playing in the NHL, in a playoff push — I’d have to pinch myself. So I feel incredibly lucky and blessed to be playing for the Capitals and playing for D.C.
