The Washington Capitals almost inexplicably find themselves in a playoff spot with just 10 games remaining on their schedule.
Neither of the team’s top two centers at the start of the year — longtime stars Nicklas Backstrom and Evgeny Kuznetsov — are currently in the picture, yet the Caps have still been able to excel in the back half of their season. That success has come in large part thanks to the growth of young players like current first-line pivot Connor McMichael.
After playing just six NHL games under Peter Laviolette in 2022-23, McMichael has been a constant fixture in the Capitals’ lineup under rookie bench boss Spencer Carbery this season. The 23-year-old center is one of just three forwards on the team this year to play in 70 or more games.
With the intensity of a tight playoff race bearing down on the team, a younger player like McMichael could be expected to struggle under that sort of pressure. However, he’s done the exact opposite and spoke about that recently after a win over the Detroit Red Wings.
“It’s unreal, it’s exciting,” McMichael said then. “I feel like you have a little bit of nerves but once you’re out there you’re just playing your game. You can feel the emotion and the energy from the crowd especially tonight both teams battling for a playoff spot.
“We’re really highly motivated right now. We have a great mix of veteran guys and young guys that want to make the playoffs and for the older guys they want to get back there and do what they did before. I think we’re just battling as a team right now. We’re playing as one and we’re doing it for each other.”
In his last nine games, McMichael has recorded eight points (5g, 3a). Only Alex Ovechkin (10) and Dylan Strome (9) rank higher in points for the Capitals during that stretch.
Carbery has tried almost every center on his roster with Ovechkin on the team’s top line this season; lately that duty has fallen to McMichael. The Great Eight and TJ Oshie have flanked McMichael for several games now. His play with those two veterans has thoroughly impressed Carbery.
“He’s doing a hell of a job as our first-line center right now, playing in all situations — penalty kill, power play, playing against other top lines,” Carbery said Tuesday. “His game has grown so much this year and now even another notch in the belt is when you’re playing in such important games against really good teams where they’re giving you everything that they’ve got because they know what’s at stake as well, he’s having some success.
“He’s not wilting in these scenarios and situations and just saying, ‘Well, I’m a young player. I’ll maybe be able to get it done in these spots in a couple years.’ He’s trying to thrive in these spots right now — and he is. Whether it’s faceoff-related, whether it’s production-related, whether it’s doing a good job in defensive zone coverage. He’s playing at a real high level and has an urgency inside of his game.”
McMichael is one of several younger players serving in a key role for the Capitals during their stretch run. He, Hendrix Lapierre, Ivan Miroshnichenko, Aliaksei Protas, Alex Alexeyev, Rasmus Sandin, and Martin Fehervary all started this season at 23 years of age or younger.
All seven of those names are now lineup regulars on a Capitals team that seems destined for a playoff appearance after the Caps missed out entirely just a year ago. Carbery expressed how valuable this experience will be for those players moving forward.
“I think over the last month it’s been so valuable,” he said. “You can’t equate it to anything tangible but other than the fact that these guys are showing up to the rink and you can feel the urgency level of what’s at stake. I look at it as every shift, every puck touch is important.
“It almost hardens you to that’s how you always play and it’s hard to do that through an 82-game schedule in November, December, January, and that. What it does is it brings you to a level of consistency of ‘this is how I need to play all the time – every shift, every puck touch, every decision, every read I make.’ These games instill those habits in you as a young player and just make it become consistent.”
McMichael and the rest of the Capitals’ young talent will face their next test in a veteran rugged Boston Bruins team on Saturday night.
The Capitals sit one point ahead of the Red Wings for the second wild card playoff position in the conference with two games in hand and just one point back of the Philadelphia Flyers for the third guaranteed playoff spot in the Metropolitan Division, also with two games in hand.
