Good Friday morning Caps fans. Hope you all are gearing up for the weekend and that you didn’t get hit by golf ball sized hail.

The weather outside was certainly frightful on Wednesday night (Thursday morning?) in Commerce City, where Mother Nature put on a far better show at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park than the Rapids have all season.

NEW: Dick’s Sporting Goods Park is experiencing “electrical difficulties” and the floodlights are out. All of a sudden a lightning strike hit nearby. Stadium is currently being powered by generators. #cowx #Rapids96 #COLvVAN pic.twitter.com/Ksx8Eqtq4J

— Brendan Ploen (@BrendanPloen) June 22, 2023

The Rapids/MLS eventually threw in the towel shortly before midnight PST and opted to postpone the match for a date to be determined. It certainly was one of the more eventful evenings in recent memory for the Caps, even though there ultimately was no football to be played.

The bad weather does muck things up for the Caps a bit. Firstly, it will likely mean that the actual match will not feature Ali Ahmed, who is set to depart for Gold Cup duty and was set to return to the lineup, albeit at wingback.

Secondly, depending on when the match is rescheduled, the Caps’ fixture congestion will only worsen. It is possible both teams could play next week on Wednesday but it would come amid a road trip to LAFC, before another match on the road against Sporting KC. Geographically, this wouldn’t be awful, as Denver is a quick flight to KC but it would be an unexpected hiccup for a team that is going to have Leagues Cup to contend with before too long.

We’ve talked frequently about the need for the Caps depth pieces to step up but this is really about to become reality. Mathias Laborda is quickly going to become vital with Javain Brown away and Luis Martins apparently might be deputized as a center back (what could go wrong?). Midfield without Julian Gressel and Ahmed is also going to get interesting pretty fast and might involve more Sebastian Berhalter or a move to a two-man midfield like we would have seen Wednesday.

And it is possible that the fixture congestion will mean we get a look at some of the Whitecaps 2 prospects with the first team, much like Levonte Johnson. Gio Aguillar had a short-term deal ahead of Wednesday and might be called upon again also.

Other teams will be affected by the Gold Cup and will be in a similar situation — FC Cincinnati, who has bossed the league so far, will be down two of their most important players. Seattle will lose the brothers Roldan and Jordan Morris. The list goes on.

But the Caps sit in a more precarious position. Maximizing this time period, particularly given the number of matches on the road, will require some unlikely heroes. Its time to see who on the squad is up to the task — given the mental fortitude they have shown in previous matches, I think they can rise to the occasion.

Shameless Self Promotion

Caleb Wilkins dives into just how far the Caps are from being real, honest-to-God MLS Cup contenders

Best of the Rest

A 10-man Whitecaps 2 fell to LAFC 2 3-1 on Thursday night, hopefully not a harbinger of things to come tomorrow

Good news for MLS teams, with the league getting a bump under England’s work permit rules that will make selling players to the Premier League easier

The Canadian Women’s National Team want their pay dispute sorted before they leave for the World Cup next month

The Caps fared quite well in The Athletic’s watchability rankings … and when is the last time we could say that?

The Gold Cup kicks off Saturday between the U.S. and Jamaica, though Canada will have to wait for their date with Guadeloupe on Tuesday