{"id":407028,"date":"2026-01-14T17:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T17:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/407028\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T17:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T17:20:08","slug":"brandon-duhaime-calls-ethen-frank-the-best-player-in-the-league-hands-down-during-spencer-carberys-post-game-victory-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/407028\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Duhaime calls Ethen Frank the best player in the league, \u2018hands down,\u2019 during Spencer Carbery\u2019s post-game victory speech"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brandon Duhaime\u2019s affinity for players from the Hershey Bears<\/a> still remains an ever-present theme in the Washington Capitals\u2019 locker room.<\/p>\n

Tuesday, after the Capitals\u2019 3-2 overtime win, Duhaime was asked to speak by Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery to conclude his post-game victory speech.<\/p>\n

The Capitals were led by three members from the Bears\u2019 2023 Calder Cup championship team on the night. Ethen Frank lit the lamp twice<\/a>, Connor McMichael tallied the overtime game-winner<\/a>, and Dylan McIlrath had a fight and a big hit<\/a> that sparked the Capitals to score three unanswered times. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou could feel it going out there right from the first shift of the third period,\u201d Carbery began. \u201cYou could feel we were not going to be denied. The determination of the group, great f***ing job.\u201d<\/p>\n

After giving shoutouts to penalty killers, McIlrath, and starting goaltender Logan Thompson, Carbery then turned his head and looked at one particular player.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe floor for this one needs to go to Brandon,\u201d Carbery declared. \u201cDewey, what is 53?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBest player in the NHL. Hands down,\u201d Duhaime replied.<\/p>\n

Frank, seemingly both complimented and embarrassed, responded, \u201cToo far. Not even close. You\u2019re right, it\u2019s not even close.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duhaime\u2019s love for Frank follows his earlier infatuation with Aliaksei Protas. <\/p>\n

Per an RMNB story from last February:<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he\u2019s the biggest Aliaksei Protas fan in, I think, in the history of hockey or the world,\u201d Dylan Strome said. \u201cHe just loves the way Pro plays. Like, maybe ten games into the year, Pro is like lighting it up, and then Dewey is on the bench \u2013 the puck came around the wall like a rim to Pro, and Pro just made a great play on the wall, and he\u2019s just like yelling as loud as he can, \u2018That\u2019s a Hershey product. A Hershey Bears product.\u2019 And everyone\u2019s just dying laughing on the bench mid-game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duhaime\u2019s love of the Bears is strange, as he has zero past connection to the back-to-back Calder Cup-winning franchise. He spent two seasons in the AHL with the Iowa Wild and never played a single game against Hershey.<\/p>\n

\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, he loves the Hershey products that come through from Hershey to the Caps,\u201d Strome said. \u201cI think he\u2019s the biggest fan of those guys \u2013 like he\u2019s all over Franky right now. Loves Frank. Frank is the new Pro, I think, for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe might have been a Bears fan growing up,\u201d McMichael, a former Calder Cup-winner with Hershey, said. \u201cThat\u2019s how much he loves the place. He used to be giving me a lot of love, and now he\u2019s moved on to other guys. I\u2019m done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regardless, no matter if Dewey is being over-the-top or not, Frank did, as Carbery said, an \u201cunbelievable f***ing job\u201d against the Canadiens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brandon Duhaime\u2019s affinity for players from the Hershey Bears still remains an ever-present theme in the Washington Capitals\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":407029,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-407028","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407028\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/407029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}