The Washington Capitals completed the final leg of their 2026 Mentors’ Trip in Nashville on Sunday and were graced once again in the locker room pregame by Josh Dowd.
Josh, the older brother of Capitals center Nic Dowd, announced the Capitals’ starting lineup in a special twang, with a nod to a cult classic hockey show.
Josh’s lineup read at Bridestone Arena went like this:
Josh Dowd: Are we ready, boys? Are we f***ing ready? All right. This is Nashville, guys. This one’s close to home, as you know, so this is f***ing personal. All right. We’re going to bring the heat. More importantly, we’re going to do what? Have some f***ing fun. Okay? Here we go.
Beau! Are you ready? Good, because you’re going.
Dowder! Are you ready? You’re f***ing going.
Franks! Are you ready? You’re going.
Sandy! Are you ready? You know you’re f***ing going.
Carlson! Always ready. I know you’re ready. This guy’s ready.
And the gunslinger. Are you ready? You’re going!
Where’s my beer? There’s my beer! There’s my beer! Let’s go!
Josh then shotgunned a beer alongside Tom Wilson’s older brother, Peter, inspiring loud cheers from players.
Josh also did the lineup read at United Center on Friday ahead of the team’s 5-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks, going viral shortly after the video was posted.
The starting lineup reads were inspired by the Canadian television comedy, Shoresy. The series, a spin-off of Letterkenny, stars Jared Keeso, whose character Shoresy works for the Sudbury Bulldogs, a struggling Senior AAA-level ice hockey team. (H/T to the Washington Post’s Bailey Johnson for first posting.)
“Holy smokes! That was intense,” Josh said after the read in a mic’d up video posted by the Capitals. “Now what’s going to happen is I’m going to have a massive crash from adrenaline, and you guys are going to film me falling asleep.”
He added, “I think I should come to every game if we get a dub,” threatening to move in with his brother Nic in Washington, DC.
While the Capitals fell to Nashville 3-2 in regulation, they would likely welcome Josh’s energy moving forward.
Here are other notable moments from the mentors’ stop in Nashville over the weekend.
Practice in Nashville
While the Capitals tried to lobby head coach Spencer Carbery for a day off in Nashville on Saturday, they ultimately did get an optional skate in. After practice, the entire traveling party, including the mentors, gathered for a group photo on the ice.
The dads share their favorite memories of the Capitals’ youth hockey careers
In the video, Jeff Chychrun confirms that Brandon Duhaime has always had that dawg in him. Chris Strome also reveals that Dylan Strome was once a goalie.
John Leonard, Ryan’s dad, sits down with Mike Vogel
“It’s been nothing but a great experience,” John Leonard said. “The other fathers are great. We get to reminisce about some of our old trips that we used to take during youth hockey, different games, where they’ve played. Just a great group of people. I loved going into the gameday meeting two days ago, the vocabulary that they use. Things like that you don’t get to experience unless the organization does this type of trip.”
David Frank talks about seeing one of his son’s goals in person
“It was phenomenal just watching him get good position on the defense, and being able to bury that puck was really nice,” David said.
Al Koken meets with Bob Lindgren and Murray McMichael
“I just like spending time with the boys, meeting new friends, and seeing some old familiar faces,” Bob Lindgren said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
“Just being around the kids and the parents of the team has just been phenomenal,” Murray McMichael said. “We’ve had a lot of fun, and seeing the behind-the-scenes work that these guys do every single day is amazing to me.”
The Capitals went 1-1 on the annual trip and will need to create some of their own energy without their mentors when they host the Montreal Canadiens at Capital One Arena on Tuesday night.
