St. Cloud, Minnesota, native and Caps defenseman Nate Schmidt was all smiles in a pregame interview before tonight’s game against the Minnesota Wild.
It was a beautiful mess, just like Jason Chimera’s conversation with John Walton Wednesday.
By 6 years ago
Photos: thornescratch
The Washington Capitals organization gives out a program during games called “Breakaway.” Inside, it features various Caps players and their various (potentially embarrassing) survey answers. Kuzy, I’m sure, loves the surveys (Ian really enjoys that Vine), and some might even say he has a bad romance with them.
I learned a lot . . . maybe too much — such as Evgeny Kuznetsov‘s favorite musician being Lady Gaga. One can only imagine how excited he was to watch the singer perform the national anthem at Super Bowl 50. Let’s look at some other tidbits that thornescratch over on Tumblr provided us with.
By 6 years ago
Admit it, when you saw the above picture, which the Capitals posted on their social media platforms to advertise the game-night hashtag for the January 5 matchup against the Bruins, you thought, gee, that would make a killer shirt.
Well, guess what. You were 100% right.
By Nathan Burchfiel 6 years ago
Photo: @nateschmidt88
When we last heard from Nate Schmidt, the Minnesota native was geeking out over the impending snow storm and naming his personal Caps snowball fight dream team.
On Monday, NHL.com’s Katie Brown caught up with Schmidt after the Capitals’ first practice since the blizzard and asked Schmidt about how he spent his days off. Apparently, the Caps defenseman took to the streets of Clarendon, Virginia with a close friend.
Photo: @Kuzya92
Over the last two days, the DC Blizzard dropped two feet of snow in the district and three feet in surrounding areas. The snow forced the cancellation of both Caps’ home games this weekend including tilts against the Ducks and Penguins. That leaves the Caps in a really weird stretch, where they’ll only play one game in 14 days.
Without hockey, the players spent time with their families and messing around on social media. I went ahead and documented it all.
There’s a historic blizzard about to slam Washington with snow totals that could reach up to 40 inches. That means lots of power outages, unsafe driving conditions, and general paralyzation of the east coast.
But if there’s one Capitals player that’s more pumped about the snow storm than all the others, it’s the always-smiling, child-at-heart Nate Schmidt. The St. Cloud, Minnesota-native spoke to NHL.com’s Katie Brown Thursday after the Capitals morning practice.
Photo: Rafael Suanes
For the past eight games, the Caps have been without blue-line regulars Brooks Orpik (who has missed the past 28 games) and John Carlson. While there’s some gray area as to whether this duo was being used as the team’s first or second defensive pair when both were healthy this season, they were unquestionably a heavily relied upon top-four pairing.
Since Carlson and Orpik have both been out, Dmitry Orlov and Nate Schmidt have been reunited as defensive partners on the Caps second pairing. This duo was fantastic for the team as the third pairing before Orpik got injured. While Schmidt has been playing in the top-four since Orpik went down, this is Orlov’s first time in the top-four this season and the first chance this duo has had to prove whether they can thrive in a larger role.
While small sample size warnings apply (eight games), so far the pairing has shown they are more than capable of not only handling, but also excelling in, a top-four role.
By Patrick Holden 6 years ago
The only pic of him not smiling.
Things looked iffy for the Capitals in the second period. While Tom Wilson served a two-minute penalty for being Tom Wilson, the New York Islanders unleashed a barrage of shots on Braden Holtby. The Caps held on for the duration of that penalty, and then they got vindication.
Nick Backstrom stole the puck from the Isles, and everyone’s favorite Nate Schmidt scored.
By Peter Hassett 6 years ago
Every night before the Caps play, the team posts a photo with a players showing off the night’s game hashtag. I hate hashtags, especially the ones that allow the corporate suits to track you.
But Nate Schmidt was featured in tonight’s #CapsBruins pic, and now I like it. He’s just so perfect.
When we first met Nate Schmidt back in 2013, we knew he was weird in a good way. With a GoPro affixed to his head at development camp, Schmidt uttered Minnesotan bon mots like “if you find a turtle on a fence post, you know someone put it there” and “a hundred pounds of dough makes a big biscuit, boys.” I still have no idea what any of that means.
With a regular spot in the line-up this season, Schmidt is getting even more comfortable. And to our benefit, he’s letting out his inner weird more.
