The Washington Capitals have won eight of their first 10 games to kick off the 2024-25 NHL season and come into Sunday as the Metropolitan Division leader. To stay atop the standings, the Capitals coaching staff is focusing more on something off the ice: player recovery after games.
Head coach Spencer Carbery has been giving his team more time off during busy weeks, especially after strenuous games where they’ve held onto late leads. The results have been highly positive early in the team’s schedule, with the Capitals dominating play at five-on-five and jumping out to their best start in nine years.
“Always trying to gather as much information as we can and find out new, more intelligent processes when it comes to [rest and recovery],” Carbery said Wednesday. “I spent some time at the Commanders’ facility, the NFL team in town, [learning] how they travel and some different techniques they use. There’s a lot that goes into it, so we’re always trying to stay ahead of it and look for ideas and ways to better manage workload and recover quicker.
“From where it was 10 years ago to now, it’s amazing how much stuff is out there. It’s just about trying to find the right stuff that works for you and your group. I’m a big believer in that and think that you have to stay on that stuff. It’s not the old-school way of doing things. You have to find new and better ways to do things.”
November is the busiest month of the Capitals’ schedule, so maximizing rest and recuperation will be crucial. Washington will play 15 games over 30 days, including four sets of back-to-back matchups.
They’ll also make their first long western road trip of the year, playing the Colorado Avalanche, Vegas Golden Knights, and Utah HC within four days from November 15-18. Overall, more than half of the games (8) will be on the road.
“I’ve found just watching the film and talking to our leadership group and relying on our strength and training department – you can tell when you play hard games and hard minutes, and guys lay it on the line, they need adequate rest,” Carbery said. “And so that’s where you need to prioritize that mentally and physically. The mental part of it just as much sometimes as the physical.
“We are trying to find ways to make sure that we continue to stay fresh and energized, especially with the way that we play. We need to be at that level.”
Saturday night’s win against the Columbus Blue Jackets was a prime example of how Carbery and his staff may handle back-to-back situations this month. After the team jumped out to an incredible 5-0 lead in the first period, Carbery spread ice time around to all four forward lines and all three defense pairs.
John Carlson, the NHL’s leading time-on-ice man coming into the game, skated 5:06 less against the Blue Jackets (21:19) than he was averaging in his previous nine games. Instead of Carlson leading the team, Martin Fehervary, his partner, finished at the front of the pack (22:01).
The equal spread was even more evident among the team’s forwards, as Connor McMichael, the forward who skated the most minutes (15:55), and Taylor Raddysh, the forward who skated the fewest minutes (13:19), were only separated by 2:36 of ice time. Alex Ovechkin, 39, had another three-point night (1g, 2a) and only had to play 13:34 total ice time, third least on the team.
“I feel like forward-wise, we’ve been able to spread it out pretty good,” Carbery said Saturday. “Amongst those three lines, for sure, to where O, Stromer, Willy, and we’ve got some other guys [penalty] killing. Pro is taking more of a role. Mikey’s taking a role. So, our forwards are very rarely getting 20 minutes, which last year I felt like it was creeping quite a bit, multiple games.
“We’re paying attention to it and know that the schedule’s about to become extremely intense. And so we just gotta pay attention to rest, all that type of stuff, load management, minutes. We’ll always be monitoring.”
Saturday’s game against Columbus was perhaps the Capitals’ easiest on their 15-game November schedule. They’ll face another five Metropolitan Division tests and seven additional games against playoff teams from both conferences last season.
Washington, on no rest, will play the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday. Carolina (7-2) is on a five-game winning streak and have not played since they defeated the Boston Bruins 8-2 on Thursday.
