New Washington Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery paid a visit to Nationals Park on Saturday as the Nats took on the Miami Marlins. After becoming the franchise’s 20th-ever bench boss in May, Carbery will start his first training camp with the Capitals in less than three weeks.
Carbery attended the game alongside his wife, Casey, and children, Hudson and Vivian. The family also got to meet Spencer’s baseball counterpart, posing for a photo with Nationals manager Dave Martinez.
Though the Nats weren’t able to pull out a win, Carbery and company were still all smiles Saturday night. The Nationals took the chance to welcome the new coach to DC mid-game with a shout-out on the jumbotron.
Capitals coach Spencer Carbery is here. pic.twitter.com/VyM9eD5ro4
— Stephen Whyno (@SWhyno) September 2, 2023
Carbery’s visit comes less than a week after the Capitals released crossover jerseys as part of their 2023-24 promotional calendar. The Capitals created a baseball-branded jersey for a giveaway on March 24, though there’s no word if he passed one along to Martinez.
Following his hire this spring, Carbery has spent a busy summer in DC as he prepares for his first season behind the Capitals’ bench. He filled out his coaching staff with new hires Kirk Muller, Kenny McCudden, and Mitch Love, and has been in touch with a host of veteran players including Alex Ovechkin, Anthony Mantha, and Evgeny Kuznetsov.
In a recent interview with NHL.com’s Tom Guilitti, Carbery spoke on his priorities for the team this season.
“Well, No. 1, right out of the gate, we’re going to make some structural adjustments to our game and that is going to be priority No. 1 implementing those, getting everybody on the same page as quickly as possible with those, and then our identity as a team,” he said. “And that goes more into all of areas of our five-on-five game of how we are going to play and what that looks like on a shift-by-shift basis, the competitiveness, the connectiveness with our group. That is kind of the identity portion that I call it.”
The Capitals will begin training camp on September 20, with the team’s season opener coming on October 13.
Headline photo: Katie Adler/RMNB
