The Washington Capitals powered their way to the best record in the NHL this season behind an impressively gritty attack headlined by captain and superstar Alexander Ovechkin and backstopped by All-World netminder Braden Holtby. Holtby's season was beyond impressive - he managed to match Martin Brodeur's single-season wins record by recording 48 wins in 12 fewer games than the Hall of Famer needed to amass the same total.
And with the Caps now prepping for the NHL playoffs and a first-round bout against the house-money Philadelphia Flyers, Holtby will need to keep his game at the same high level he managed all season.
Interestingly, it turns out Holtby's secret to success isn't (just) his pre-game massages or visualization sessions. It's music and, more specifically, the time he spends playing guitar as part of a newly minted game day ritual.
"Especially over a long season like this, I'm always searching for ways to create that similarity every game day, of the mindset I'm trying to get into," Holtby said. "A lot it is the mental prep, the breathing, the imagery, but throughout the day you don't want to be angry or sleepy or all those different feelings you have that could change your view on how you're going to perform that night. Music just always takes you back to the same place. Any type of music, you listen to it, it changes your mood, your outlook on things. That's my reason for doing it, I guess."
Whatever the reason, it certainly seems to be working.
Holtby first started the tradition in November around the time he and the Caps managed an otherworldly run of success that included 20 regulation wins in 22 games.
And it's continued ever since.
All told, the former fourth-round pick has posted a 48-9-7 record, with a .922 save percentage and a 2.20 save percentage.
Holtby, whose mother Tami was a long-time lead vocalist in the alt-country scene in Saskatchewan, grew up on the road, watching Tami play gigs all along the western Canadian roadways. Now, the Caps' starting netminder uses his down time playing indie rock and country tunes to center himself and clear his mind's eye.
No one, not even Holtby knows if it'll be enough to help the Capitals exercise their shoulder-riding playoff demons, but there is plenty of reason for optimism, because these Caps, like the Caps of old, aren't just depending on Ovechkin to power the machine.
Kuznetzov. Oshie. Backstrom. Burakovsky. Williams.
The depth of this Capitals team and the efforts of the zen-like Holtby make this the best, and most complete, team to come out of Washington, maybe ever.
