ARLINGTON, V.A. — On the road, the Washington Capitals make sure to pack the essentials: enough suits and ties for each game, some toiletries and a good winter coat if they're headed somewhere cold. However, one essential always makes the trip: the Xbox.
Washington's locker room is a tight-knit room, and just one tradition that keeps the group close together is a good round — or several rounds — of video games.
T.J. Oshie and John Carlson were the ones who started the tradition, which centers around the popular "Call of Duty" franchise. During the COVID-19 return to play and the "bubble" in the playoffs, players weren't allowed to even be in the same hotel room, leading to boredom and isolation.
So, Oshie and Carlson grabbed their controllers and headsets to kill the downtime. After all, there was lots of it.
"It was born out of the pandemic. Being at home so much and not being able to do much, and then obviously there was the hotel year and semi-hotel year and there was a lot of restriction in terms of not being able to do much. So a lot of downtime in the hotel room is not great. It’s tough to watch that many shows and lay in bed for so long," Carlson said. "So it's always a good, different thing that I hadn't done in 15 years before this latest rendezvous."
"Easy to hang out with the boys without actually hanging out in person," Oshie added.
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Pretty soon, a "COD Squad" formed as teammates paired up or went against each other in battle royales while out on the road.
The main "COD Squad" is led by Carlson (Oshie's put down the controller for now), as well as Nick Jensen and on occasion, Alex Ovechkin, who also plays the NHL franchise and hosts an online tournament of the hockey simulation game over in Russia in the offseason.
Former Capitals Marcus Johansson, Anthony Mantha and Brenden Dillon, who bought an Xbox console during the return-to-play, were also in on the first-person shooter and gaming sessions.
"It's funny. Some nights, someone goes for dinner and comes home later, you can just be walking through the hallway and hear people scream and you know who it is and what's going on," Carlson said. "I'm coming back from dinner, and I can hear Jens screaming down the hall."
Jensen, meanwhile, didn't cite his competitiveness but did take the fall as the worst gamer in the room.
"I'm going to keep the team camaraderie together. I'll be the anchor," he laughed.
Carlson had another nominee, though, and pointed fingers at Ovechkin, who will often in his own world and wandering off when he does join in on Washington's gaming sessions.
"I would probably say the big man (is the worst). I think that's probably why everyone won't say anything. No, no, he's not," Carlson laughed. "I think that he usually plays with his friends a lot. So we're all kind of doing the same stuff and then when he comes in, he's kind of off on his own page a little bit. He's got more of a different play style. Ovi, we always see him on, but he’s never really playing with us. Or he’ll call us and be like, 'Hey, what gun are we using?' And he’s got all his stuff in Russian, so we can’t help him."
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Beyond the "COD Squad," the Capitals have several different gamers in the room.
Dylan Strome will occasionally tune into the FPS games, but most of the time, he's in online societies or pursuing a virtual pro golf career in 2K Sports' PGA Tour games.
Connor McMichael sticks to the Nintendo Switch and Mario Kart, which holds a special place in the Capitals' hearts as a mainstay and the go-to game for Oshie, Braden Holtby, Jay Beagle and more during the 2018 Stanley Cup run.
Nate Schmidt had originally started the Mario Kart craze in D.C. when he bought a Nintendo 64, leading to watch parties in the hotels and Mario Kart tattoos, as Holtby recalled in a piece for Players Tribune ).
Aliaksei Protas, meanwhile, stays tuned into the "FIFA" games. Protas was the reigning FIFA champ in the room but did admit things can get a bit heated from time to time.
"Everybody wants to win, so sometimes it's fun but sometimes one of us gets real mad," he laughed.
Not everyone in the room is plugged in, though. Hendrix Lapierre and Vincent Iorio both lead a card-playing group when they're up in D.C., with the main game on the table being 7-Up, introduced by Hershey Bears forward Jimmy Huntington.
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"We got a lot of time to kill, we don't have many things to do in the afternoons, and like, we don't want to be in our room all day on our phones and stuff," Lapierre pointed out. "We just go in the lobby or go outside, play cards and get the competitive spirit up a little bit."
Overall, the players are happy to find different ways to unwind, and it's something that's also brought the already-close group even closer.
"It's been really fun to get on with the guys and joke around and mess around and have something to do," Carlson said.
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