With the Capitals on a three-day break between games, head coach Spencer Carbery is preparing for an even sooner event: Halloween. The rookie bench boss and his family will soon celebrate their first Halloween since moving to Washington, and preparations are in full swing.
After several seasons of coaching in the Sweetest Place on Earth, however, the Carberys’ chocolate-related expectations have gotten a little skewed.
“If you came to my house right now, there’s a lot going on,” a grinning Carbery told reporters Monday. “We had the luxury of living in Hershey for a few years. So our kids are used to the large chocolate bars in houses and we had to (tell them), ‘no, [the miniature candy] is the normal, this is not normal. You don’t get this size of chocolate bar everywhere.’”
Between 2018 and 2021, Carbery served as head coach of the Hershey Bears, who play just over a mile away from the Hershey Company’s headquarters and within walking distance of Hershey Park. He then spent two years as an assistant coach for the Toronto Maple Leafs before joining the Capitals this offseason.
For Carbery’s two young children, living in Hershey meant the additional perk of prime trick-or-treating: the city and Bears have become so synonymous with their namesake candy that the mascot for Coachella Valley Firebirds even attempted to ban chocolate in the arena when the two teams faced off in the Calder Cup Finals.
The Bears responded to their former head coach’s remarks on social media Friday afternoon.
We don’t call it The Sweetest Place On Earth for nothin’ 🍫😍 https://t.co/aj9f13w9si
— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) October 30, 2023
Now that Carbery is no longer with the Chocolate and White, though, he admitted that his neighborhood’s children would have to look elsewhere for their full-sized treats.
“So we are the fun size (household),” he said. “But there’s a lot of different — we’ve got a lot going on.”
As long as he’s not giving out raisins or toothbrushes, he’s all right in our book.
Headline photo: Photoshop using a photo from the Hershey Bears
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