The Washington Capitals dropped their first home game in almost two weeks against the Dallas Stars on Thursday night. In the game, the Capitals held a lead at some point all three periods but could not hang on to avoid the eventual 5-4 shootout loss.
Head coach Spencer Carbery expressed frustration with his team postgame and tried to explain what he saw and what happened leading to the loss. After a road trip that ended poorly, the rookie bench boss didn’t hold back.
“We’ve just got a lot of work to do,” Carbery said. “We make some mistakes that just constantly are just digging ourselves (holes). And it’s our whole lineup, like our entire lineup top to bottom are just making massive, massive mistakes that you just can’t make at this level if you expect to win hockey games.
“I mean you just go down the list,” Carbery continued. “Just head-scratching mistakes in moments where you have control of the game. That’s where we’ve got a long way to go to grow as a team. You just don’t make those mistakes when you’re trying to win games and protect leads. We gave up some odd-man rushes coming out of that power play goal that you’re just going, ‘What just happened there?’ And, that’s the story of what I saw constantly through that game. We’re doing all of those things that a young team does. It’s frustrating.”
While Carbery pointed out this is characteristic of a young team, he was also well aware of the fact that his roster includes many veteran players, too. The Capitals entered the season with the projected, second-oldest roster in the NHL by average age and 11 guys that dressed in the loss to the Stars are 29 years old or older. The team’s star core is also almost entirely within that older group.
“You feel like we have enough veteran guys but I feel like they’re struggling as well,” Carbery said. “This is the part where it feels like it’s coming from the coaching. The accountability part when they’re struggling. How are they supposed to hold Protas accountable, McMichael, when they just can’t because we’re all in the same spot. That’s what we’ve got to sort out, is our veteran guys being able to lead by example, show the way, talk to the young guys, and walk them through situations like that. They’re struggling in their own right, right now and that’s what you’re seeing.”
One play in particular that seemed to draw the ire of Carbery was Tom Wilson’s goaltender interference penalty early in the third period. While Wilson pleaded his case to the referees and was clearly upset by the call, his head coach responded to it very plainly on Friday morning.
“It’s a penalty,” Carbery said. “That one was not ideal at all.”
The timing of the penalty seemed to be what upset Carbery the most. Just 24 seconds into the third period, with his team holding a 3-2 lead, Wilson went to the box. Roope Hintz would then deflect home Dallas’ second game-tying goal just a minute or so later.
“We tried to keep that game five-on-five based on their special teams and the success that they’ve had on the penalty kill and the power play but also them being on a back-to-back,” Carbery said. “Whenever you play a special teams game where each team has five [power plays] each, it helps a team that is potentially a little bit more fatigued because it slows the game down and gets their best people on the ice with more time, space. If you’re able to keep that game five-on-five, it wears more and is just harder minutes. That was one of the important keys going into the game.”
Friday’s practice became an optional skate and was sparsely attended by the team’s roster. Max Pacioretty was present for some more light skating before TJ Oshie, Sonny Milano, Lucas Johansen and Alex Alexeyev got some work in with skills coach Kenny McCudden and assistant coach Scott Allen.
Carbery says that the team made the decision to send the bulk of the roster home after a short meeting so that they could clear their heads and get ready for Saturday’s test against the New York Rangers.
“Today we felt like it was important with the road trip and the amount of games that we’ve had just to take a bit of a deep breath here and get more guys away from what went on last night and reset, recharge, and get ready for tomorrow,” he said. “We’ll sort of address some of that stuff tomorrow morning.”
The Rangers will come into the game at the top of the Metropolitan Division with a 18-5-1 record and winners of seven of their last 10 games. The meeting will be the first between the two teams this season and the first time Peter Laviolette coaches against the Capitals since leaving the team.
Screenshot: Capitals
