Capitals forward Matt Hendricks stormed down the bench barking at his teammates, blood trickling from a cut above his right eye.
Down 1-0 to the Phoenix Coyotes late in a sleepy first period on Monday night, Hendricks had taken matters into his own hands. His fight with Kyle Chipchura left the Phoenix forward with a bloody nose, sparked the Verizon Center crowd and drew stick taps from the other Caps players on the bench. A jacked Hendricks even high-fived fans as he made his way down the tunnel following his early dismissal for intermission.
Yes, the Coyotes still took a 2-0 lead at 7:34 of the second period. But the fight still had the desired effect. The Caps, who couldn’t seem to win a physical battle if they tried on the final two games of their recent road trip, suddenly were competing and winning some. Nicklas Backstrom’s goal early in the third period was a perfect example. Maybe it can’t all be traced back to that Hendricks fight. Washington had outshot Phoenix 13-5 in the first period, after all. But the Caps were still losing and several players said afterwards it set the proper tone for the rest of the game.
“Any time somebody’s willing to fight and sacrifice their body, there’s only one reason to do that,” rookie forward Cody Eakin said. “And Hendy, he’s all about the team. The guys get fired up, and, ‘Look, he’s willing to do that, let’s go play the right way for him.’”
Washington coach Bruce Boudreau deadpanned that Hendricks was pretty into the game, saying “C’mon guys” – or something to that affect. It’s how the 30-year-old winger has to play. It’s how he made the team out of training camp last season and earned his first multi-year contract in the NHL. He’ll be the first to tell you he can’t match most of his teammates’ skill level – though when put on the ice for shootouts he does a pretty nice impersonation of some of them.
“Yeah, I don’t know. Under a minute to go in the first, we’re down by a goal. I was just trying to get a little spark going before we went in [to intermission],” Hendricks said. “I thought we had a good period. Obviously, we had a little breakdown there on our power play. But for the most part we had all the momentum and I wanted to continue that in and the guys responded.”
The challenge now? Finding a way to carry that into Wednesday night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets at Verizon Center. Beating Phoenix does no good if you drop that one. And motivation won’t be an issue after the Jets quickly blew open last week’s matchup in Winnipeg in the second period. But for one day at least, the Caps were content to enjoy the end of a four-game losing streak. Maybe it hasn’t been as trying as last year’s eight-game skid in December. But it still hurt. Hendricks did his part to make sure they left the building all smiles on Monday.
“You want to be happy, man. This game is fun to play,” forward Brooks Laich said. “You lose a couple games and it seems like there’s a gray cloud over you. But then you put in a good effort and you win. We have to remember that winning’s hard and when you win it’s because you deserve it and you pay a price to do it.”
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