The Capitals came together after Jensen's injury for a 4-2 win over Tampa to reclaim a playoff spot.
WASHINGTON — Nic Dowd was moved to tears when asked about Nick Jensen, his good friend and longtime teammate who had to be stretchered off the ice after a hit by Michael Eyssimont late in the first period of the Washington Capitals' meeting with the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Dowd was emotional discussing Jensen, who he played with at St. Cloud State and has raised his family alongside for the last few seasons in D.C.
"Obviously you're immediately upset, but then when I see Jens laying on the ice like that, it's tough to see. He's been a friend of mine for a long time," Dowd said. "Our kids grow up together, born around the same time, know his family really well. Seeing anybody in a vulnerable state like that is challenging. But he's a tough guy, so, I'm glad to know that he's doing better now."
The first period was called off after Jensen's departure, and sitting together in the locker room, with Jensen's stall empty, they all decided they would emulate the 33-year-old blueliner's play and rally around him for two huge points against Tampa.
"We all know how hard he works, and so I think when that happened, we went to the room and kind of regathered ourselves a little bit. At the end of the day, we just wanted to play like Jensen," Lindgren said. "That's hard and it's the right way and I thought we did that. Credit to the guys in here because it's not easy seeing a brother go down like that."
Washington delivered, as Dowd had an insurance goal, a fight with Eyssimont and a team-leading eight hits en route to the win.
"I definitely know I can't skate as fast as (Jensen), so there's no chance that I did that," Dowd joked. "But he's a huge piece our our team, I think. He does so many things that go unnoticed, blocks a ton of shots, leads our penalty kill, really good in the offensive zone, gives our forwards an opportunity to handle the puck a lot because he does such a good job of breaking pucks out."
Jensen, meanwhile, is conscious, alert and has full use of all of his extremities, and he walked out of Capital One Arena under his own power with his family at his side. He did not go to the hospital.
"He's a heart-and-soul guy. He's a leader. It's tough to say you want to go out there and win the game for Jens. There's no question we've got a brother and a teammate that gets injured like that, but I think we just had to understand the gravity of the situation and not let that play into how we need to finish the game," Dowd added. "Because I think Jens would be happy with the outcome knowing that we stepped in for him and we got the job done."
It was a physical battle until the final buzzer, as the Capitals outhit the Lightning 56-25 and also got a game-winning strike from John Carlson, two more goals from Sonny Milano and 32 saves from Charlie Lindgren for the win, which put D.C. back in the second Wild Card spot for the time being.
"It's tough. It's tough to even go back out there after something scary like that, you know, just like I'm sure you guys felt, we feel probably a hundred times worse being down here and everything that we fight for... We tried to muster up everything we could for him," Carlson said.
"I think we did a good job navigating. It's tough to turn it into mayhem, easily we could have and what we have at stake, I'm sure Jens would want us to get the win more than to avenge him or whatever you say. I think we did a good job being physical, being firm, standing up for our brother but also navigating the game in a positive way to give ourselves a chance to win."