ARLINGTON, VA — Just over three months after Opening Night, the Capitals are more than halfway through the 2023-24 season. As of Wednesday, Caps hold a record of 21-15-6 and sit one point out of an Eastern Conference wild-card spot.
Now midway through his first year as head coach, Spencer Carbery took time to look back on the season so far. Though they’ve had plenty of ups and downs, Carbery praised his players for their tenacity.
“I think we’re battling,” he said. “We’re fighting and we’re battling. It hasn’t always been a Picasso, but we’ve found ways to win. We’re grinding out games. We’re staying in the fight.
“Our guys deserve a lot of credit for that because, like I said, it hasn’t always been the flashy, winning games 5-2,4-1. We’ve had to really grind these first 42 games to sit where we are and still be right there at the record that we have and where we’re sitting in the standings.”
The Capitals have played much of the season on a knife’s edge. Twenty-one of their forty-two games have been decided by a single goal, more than all but three other teams, but they hold a 13-2-6 record in those matchups.
For Carbery, that not only demonstrates the team’s ability to persevere, but also offers a valuable opportunity to develop younger players.
“I think there is a tremendous amount of value in playing in close games,” he said. It’s no different. I look at it the same way as, it’s not a playoff game but it correlates the same to a player developing and playing in the Calder Cup playoffs. You’re playing in moments, you’re having shifts, you’re touching the puck. You’re in D-zone coverage when there’s a ton at stake. And that makes you have to think quickly. That means you need to — this puck could be the deciding puck in the game.”
Of course, that doesn’t make close games any less stressful.
“For the longevity of my life, [winning by more goals] is a priority,” he said with a laugh, “But the tight games, for a young player’s development, I think there’s value.”
Still, the prevalence of one-goal games could signal a larger issue. While the Capitals have managed to pull out wins in close matches, their lack off offense often puts them in those situations to begin with. Washington has scored just 98 times (not counting shootout wins), which ties them with the Chicago Blackhawks for second-last in the NHL.
Carbery has regularly criticized the Capitals’ scoring woes through the first half of the season, but highlighted Wednesday how mercurial earning goals in the NHL could be.
“You can do all the right things. You can check box here, here, here, here to set yourself up and you’ve set the table and everything looks perfect — there’s a goaltender there. And there’s a shot that, as hard as I’m trying as a 42 year old, I can go in on Igor Shesterkin and it’s probably not going in the net. Even though I’m trying, I’m giving 110%. And that’s what I would say maybe the challenging part of the offensive part of it is: you can do all the right things; it doesn’t mean you’re going to score.”
Carbery’s comments tacitly acknowledge shortcomings in the team’s personnel. Veteran players like Alex Ovechkin and TJ Oshie have seen the effects of age take their toll, while young players like Connor McMichael and Aliaksei Protas–not to mention prospects like Ivan Miroshnichenko and Ryan Leonard–have yet to reach their prime. Even so, the Capitals’ have managed to compensate for their lack of firepower, at least some of the time, with both stronger defense and stellar goaltending from Charlie Lindgren.
That style of play wasn’t what Carbery anticipated when he took the position, he admitted earlier this month, but the lack of scoring forced him to focus on how the team could succeed elsewhere.
“[It’s] been an adjustment, I’ll be honest with you,” he said, later adding, “Did I maybe think we could do some other things offensively? Yeah, maybe. But I also came to realize, ‘wow, we are really good in this area, this area, this area, and we can thrive. And this is how we’re going to win games, and this is how we potentially could be a playoff team if we do these things really well.’”
Carbery felt confident in his own abilities to coach defensive play, also noting that he had seen buy-in from players and coaching staff.
“I feel like one of my strengths as a coach is being able to teach the defensive details of the game and identify them and work with individuals, work in a team setting, and being able to consistently stay on those things and be able to get our group to understand the value in those,” he said. “And partly, that’s not just me and our coaching staff, that’s the players that we have that are bought into that and understand the value of playing: if you play this way, it gives yourself a chance to win every night in this league consistently.”
The Capitals face a challenging path forward, with more difficult competition and fewer days off in the second half of the campaign. They won’t be the only ones in the hunt for a playoff spot, either: just one point separates fourth place and seventh place in the Metropolitan Division. Though they’re not out of the running, their postseason future is far from guaranteed.
Carbery recognized the difficult road ahead, but still found space to recognize his players for how far they have come.
“There’s a long way to go, but I think our guys should be proud of where we are right now and then understand: the work and the task and the mountain challenge that’s ahead of us isn’t going to get any easier,” he said.
