Joel Ward saw his former Nashville Predators teammates in Baltimore last week, but didn’t get a chance to play against them. His first preseason game was the next day against Columbus. But he returns to his former home tonight when the Caps travel to Nashville for preseason game No. 5.
Ward will serve as the right wing with Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Semin. He’s got a pretty good idea about his role for tonight.
“Definitely an opportunity,” Ward said. “Try to get out there and work hard, get them pucks and let them do their thing. I just need to go to the net and look to get open for shots and rebounds and try to establish a net presence in front.”
Ward has some pretty fond memories of Bridgestone Arena. He last played there on May 9 when the Predators finally fell to the Vancouver Canucks in Game 6 of their second-round Stanley Cup playoff series. That series showed the potential of hockey in Nashville as a roaring, sold-out building tried to push the Predators to the conference finals for the first time in franchise history.
“I think the biggest guard-against is getting too amped up and too excited,” Washington coach Bruce Boudreau said. “If this was our first game of the season or something or his first preseason game like it would have been in Baltimore then I probably wouldn’t do it. That’s why I didn’t play him in Baltimore. But it’s his third game so I think it’s a little easier.”
A free-agent after the season, Ward signed with Washington on July 1. He said he really hopes just to get the “nerves out of my legs” early tonight. He’ll return once more this season when the Caps travel to Nashville for a regular season game on Nov. 15 and then see his former teammates again at Verizon Center on Dec. 20.
“From experience it’s definitely been a loud building and we’ve had a lot of games there where the crowd got on their feet,” Ward said. “It’s a good building to be in and play in and looking forward to the opportunity of going back and hopefully putting on a good performance.”
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