Michael Latta spent a couple of seasons sitting next to Braden Holtby in the Capitals locker room. And Latta, an excitable sort, figured he might as well include Washington’s goalie in his own pregame routine.
“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Latta would chatter, tossing an inspirational shove or two at his neighbor.
“And it would just be dead silence,” he recalled, laughing. “Not even a response. It was like I was hitting a wall. He was just completely in the zone. Finally, I learned to stop doing that.”
Remember this when you consider what Holtby did Monday evening.