Brandon Duhaime gave the Capitals their new nickname as they refuse to quit with the odds against them.
ARLINGTON, V.A. — The Washington Capitals refuse to go away — and that got Brandon Duhaime thinking.
Back when Duhaime was playing college hockey at Providence, he remembered he and the Friars wouldn't go down without the fight, earning them a nickname synonymous with household pests that, for whatever reason, are tough to get rid of.
"They ended up calling us cockroaches," Duhaime said. "I don't even remember the origin. It was just a pesky team that kind of always sticks around and finds ways to kind of get good wins and timely wins, and that's kind of where we're at."
So, around the locker room, Duhaime dubbed Washington the "Cockroach Caps," and it caught on rather quickly, with Dylan Strome and more quickly taking to the moniker.
Strome first revealed the nickname back in Buffalo, and then brought it up again after another key win over the Sabres on Saturday brought D.C. within one point of a playoff spot.
"We've been saying all along, just focus on what we can control... we got to keep stacking wins together," Strome said. "(We've won) four of our last five, I think now, so we're putting ourselves in a good spot. You know, 'Cockroach Caps,' as Duhaime says."
The nickname may be just "Dewey being Dewey," as Ryan Leonard said, but there's truth to it.
After all, the Capitals refuse to give up and continue to stay in the thick of the playoff race despite the odds or their backs against the walls.
"There's no quit," Leonard said. "I think everyone in this group, you look to the left and right of you, you trust that guy, and you know they're going to give 110 percent each and every night and each shift. We have a great brotherhood in this locker room."
With that, Leonard also gave credit to Duhaime for how he's helped the group come together.
"He's great, and he's always bringing every he's always bringing the energy every single day, no matter the circumstances," Leonard said. "Yeah, he's been great to me and great for the team."
Up next for Washington is a meeting with the New York Rangers, which, depending on how its Eastern Conference opponents stack up, could propel D.C. into a playoff spot for the first time since January.
And, regardless of the results, coach Spencer Carbery is expecting the same effort and drive from the "Cockroach Caps."
"It's the character of the group. They care a lot, and there's two parts to it, right? There's a brotherhood, and they care about each other (and) do the right thing for one another, because they they care about the guy next to him," Carbery said. "And then, there's a competitive part of it. That's the part that we've really tried to tap into more this year than and we've had to, is the will and the desire and the burning fire to want to win.
"Everyone wants to win in this league, but there's a competitive juice that, you get it to one more notch, and I felt like a lot through this year, our group has continued to do that when it's looked really dark and, 'This isn't a good situation,' or, 'That wasn't a great performance. Let's see what this game looks like.' They respond, right? And (Saturday) was no different."