Washington Capitals or Washington Country Fans?
Either one works since the hockey team in our nation’s capital (maybe that’s where they got their name?) celebrated making the Stanley Cup Playoffs by belting out Eric Church’s all-time classic “Talladega” as a team.
The 2014 hit is some of Church’s best work, and was released as the fourth single from his album The Outsiders. Funny enough, the country music star admitted that he really wrote the song about Daytona, but Talladega just so happened to work better in the chorus.
Church also revealed that though the subject matter of the song revolves around a NASCAR race, the track is actually meant to focus in on an experience that’s finite, and how people should look around and enjoy the moments they are in.
Knowing that, it makes all the sense in the world that the Washington Capitals were utilizing the song to celebrate their playoff clinching moment. It was as if it was karaoke night in the locker room, because it does appear that every player sitting in the room knew every word to decade old country song.
There must be a lot of Eric Church fans on the Capitals squad, or there’s a possibility that they’ve adopted the track as somewhat of a “rally song” as teams often do when the postseason rolls around. Remember the resurgence of Creed during last year’s NFL season?
Church is a North Carolina man through and through (he’s even a part owner of the Charlotte Hornets), so if he’s an NHL fan, he’s likely a loyal follower of the Carolina Hurricanes, who also made the Stanley Cup Playoffs. But I’m sure if he were to see this clip of the Capitals singing along to “Talladega,” he’d at least secretly root for the Washington hockey team… as long as they don’t play Carolina.
Alexander Ovechkin doesn’t look too amused, but goaltender Charlie Lindgren looked like he was leading the choir… gotta love it. Keep an eye out for the Capitals in the playoffs, especially if they keep rocking out to Eric Church as a team in the locker room like this:
