#ex-caps

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Michael Latta has a new puppy, and I apparently still have emotions about Michael Latta. Cool cool cool.

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… And Then We Got Mario Kart Tattoos | By Braden Holtby

My emotions were just all over the place when I was on the ice. Then two things happened that really changed my life.

I don’t even know who said it. But they remembered. They remembered the promise, man. They were like, “We said we’d do it. We’re doing it.”

And then Oshie was like, “We’re doing it, dude. I’m getting a Wario tattoo. I’M GETTING A WARIO TATTOO! HOLTS! CALL THE TATTOO GUYS!”

So I called the tattoo guys.

(Thank you to the fine folks at Tattoo Paradise, who let us come in on short notice and also let us order a bunch of pizzas to the shop. We appreciate you.)

Some of this is blurry, but the moment that I will never forget is Jakub Vrána lying there on the table, in so much pain. Just dying. And he’s like, “Guys, somebody just hold my hand.”

And so we took turns holding his hand, like, “It’s gonna be okay, buddy. It’s gonna be over soon.”

In the end, those are the moments that you’ll always remember. That’s why you play the game. Because so much of it is a blur. Honestly, the hours after we won the Cup are a blur. There’s so much media, so many people, so many interviews. You barely process it. Even my day with the Cup was a blur. There’s just not enough time. You never really get a moment to let it all sink in.

But there are still these little moments that stick.

Thank you, Braden Holtby, for killing me dead.

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It was deep into the night, maybe 4 a.m. by his recall, when the phone of Carolina Hurricanes forward Justin Williams rang. It was his former teammates on the Washington Capitals, raging through the night in Las Vegas, having just won the Stanley Cup. Their faces popped up on his screen, the FaceTime showing their joy and exhilaration at the ultimate goal, accomplished. 'That team has just been so good for so long and to see them finally win -- albeit I would have loved to be there and I was jealous I wasn't -- I never really openly rooted for another team as much as I did with them,' Williams said Monday at the Hurricanes' hotel in Boston. 'They found a way to do it. They found a way to get a little bit more out of each other.' It was fitting, then, that they called Williams that night. The three-time Stanley Cup winner, who played for the Capitals from 2015-17, left his mark on the team that would go on to win the Stanley Cup the season after he signed with Carolina as a free agent, where he is now trying to alter the leadership and the culture in much the same way he did in Washington. 'Even though we didn't win when he was here, he brought a lot to the table," Capitals forward Tom Wilson said. "It didn't happen that year, but it instilled that in the locker room and left that impression even after he was gone on how you act, how you play. We didn't get a bounce those years, but we went on to [win]. For the young guys, for everyone, I think learning from him was huge.'

NHL.com

Catch me crying about how the Caps loved JWills so much they drunk-called him to share their happiness with him when they finally won.

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Our nice and good boy Grubi, who still believes in us.

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Nicklas Backstrom and Marcus Johansson nine years ago on May 17, 2010, signing their ten year long term and three year entry level contracts respectively.

(source)

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“Holts does what he does. You know, he stands on his head. He robbed me there. He said sorry. If he knew it was me, he would have let it in, he said. And I was, ‘Talk is cheap, Holts.’”

He’s almost as mad as the Hungry Hungry Hippos game.

(source)

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Oh God Beags don’t do me like that.

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It is time for more emotions from Ex-Caps.