Connor McMichael had a huge night for the Washington Capitals against the Boston Bruins on Tuesday. In McMichael’s second game of the preseason, the 22-year-old forward scored the opening goal of the Caps’ eventual 5-4 overtime win and fired a game-high 10 shots on goal.
The 2019 first-round draft pick skated on the wing of the team’s second line in a trio with Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson. He also received penalty killing responsibilities and was one of the first forwards Spencer Carbery turned to in the three-on-three overtime session.
The Ajax, Ontario native, after not getting opportunity from Peter Laviolette last year, is clearly proving he belongs in the team’s everyday NHL lineup this season. He spent the vast majority of last year in the AHL with the Hershey Bears, getting into just six games with the Caps.
McMichael wasted no time getting his fingerprints onto the game. Just 26 seconds into the first period, John Carlson sent a high snap shot into Bruins netminder Linus Ullmark’s chest protector and the 2023 Vezina Trophy winner dropped the rebound right in McMichael’s lap. In one swift motion the 2023 Calder Cup champion corralled the loose puck and fired a slick backhand shot to the back of the Boston cage.
ICYMI pic.twitter.com/xX62GpwHUE
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 3, 2023
“I’m just trying to do my best out there with [Kuznetsov and Wilson],” McMichael told Monumental Sports Network’s Al Koken during an intermission interview. “They make it pretty easy for me. I’ve been bouncing a lot of questions off of them throughout the preseason and camp. They make it easy and I’m having a lot of fun.
“Coming up to the NHL this year is going to be a huge jump from last year. It’s all those little details, wall plays, and making good plays in the neutral zone. I’m looking to keep it going.”
Carbery, who coached McMichael in Hershey during the 2020-21 campaign where McMichael led the team in scoring, has matched-up well with Kuznetsov and Wilson during both preseason games that all three players have featured in.
The line showed off their chemistry again on Tuesday as with them on the ice at five-on-five, the Caps saw huge differentials in shot attempts (+13), scoring chances (+12), and high-danger chances (+8). The Bruins did not record a single scoring chance or high-danger chance against them in those minutes.
Insulating the often defensively-deficient Kuznetsov with two responsible, two-way wingers could prove huge for the Caps this season. McMichael hasn’t always been considered a major two-way threat but he worked tirelessly on those skills with the Bears last year, becoming a player that head coach Todd Nelson relied on in the biggest moments of important games.
Carbery has taken early notice of that work. “I’ve told him this before: he’s a competitive guy,” Carbery said a week ago. “And he’s a gamer — and I’ll use that phrase a lot with y’all. I bet on gamers, man. When the chips are down and the game’s on the line, he wants the puck; he wants to be the guy. Players like that, I just find, find ways to have success in this league.”
McMichael’s previous best shot output in a single NHL game preseason or regular season, before he fired 10 pucks on frame Tuesday, was six. He recorded that mark twice, once in a 2021 game against the Chicago Blackhawks and again in a 2022 game against the Nashville Predators.
When McMichael is at his best and most confident, he’s putting the puck on net. That’s evidenced by that highly-successful 2020-21 season in Hershey under Carbery where he led the team in shots on goal with 127 in 33 games.
McMichael noted that he rediscovered and leveled-up on his confidence in his postgame media availability. “I think I’m just making a lot more plays that I wouldn’t have been making a couple years ago,” McMichael said. “It’s a credit to my confidence right now. I’m not really thinking too much out there. I’m just playing.”
Carbery echoed some of those thoughts as he raved about the growth he has seen from McMichael. “It wasn’t just the production and the goal,” Carbery said. “There were so many other little things, from a PK standpoint and from a three-on-three standpoint. All different things that I thought he did a really good job.
“If you know Connor McMichael, you’ve always seen that about him. He’s confident in his ability and he has swagger. In those moments throughout a game, he wants the puck. He wants to be the guy out there making the play defensively and offensively. You’ve seen him really take that step here and now he’s making those plays and having that confidence and that swagger with touches at the offensive blueline or with his speed through the neutral zone, or his down-low, O-zone touches. He’s developed a lot and it’s on display now. It’s the same way he looked to me at a lower level but now he’s looking like that in the best league in the world.”
The Caps have two preseason games remaining for evaluation but it sounds like McMichael is well on his way to grasping a full-time NHL role to kick the 2023-24 season off.
McMichael is in the last year of his entry-level deal so he’s also playing for a raise if he can substantially add to his 18 career NHL points.
Screenshot via @Capitals/X
