ARLINGTON, VA — The Washington Capitals will have their first meeting of the season against the San Jose Sharks Tuesday night, but head coach Spencer Carbery is already plenty familiar with rookie bench boss Ryan Warsofsky, who the Sharks promoted this offseason.
Carbery and Warsofsky have been close friends since 2013 when Warsofsky began his professional coaching career working under Carbery as an assistant coach for the South Carolina Stingrays in the ECHL. The pair worked together for three seasons in South Carolina before Carbery left to coach the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit and Warsofsky took on his old role.
From 2013-16, Ryan Warsofsky served as Spencer Carbery's assistant coach with the @SCStingrays. Tonight, they meet as NHL head coaches for the first time when the @Capitals host the @SanJoseSharks. pic.twitter.com/jZA9qY8LuH
— ECHL (@ECHL) December 3, 2024
Speaking about Carbery Monday, Warsofsky offered effusive praise to his mentor.
“He means pretty much everything,” he said. “He got me into pro hockey, learned from him for three years. Learned who I am, really molded me to the coach I probably am today more than anyone. He’s one of my best friends.
“And when the puck drops there will be no friends, but we talk a lot, communicate a lot through his path and his start last year, being his first year as a head coach in the National Hockey League. I still learn from him from this day, so I extremely appreciate what he’s meant to me, not just on a professional level but a personal level.”
The bond between the two developed in part due to the grueling travel schedule of the ECHL, which sees teams trek by bus between cities.
“We spent a lot of time [together], we know everything about each other, routines,” Warsofsky said. “But I learned a lot just watching him. The way he communicates is extremely impressive. How prepared he is, his routine. So yeah, he’s a big part of my life.”
Both coaches went through the ranks in the AHL after leaving South Carolina and eventually took assistant coaching jobs in the NHL: Carbery with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Warsofsky with San Jose. Carbery, then 42, became the youngest coach in the league when the Capitals hired him in May 2023 before Warsofsky usurped him when he replaced David Quinn this fall. They appeared together this summer at the South Carolina Stingrays’ annual Fan Fest, celebrating where they started their careers.
But Carbery and Warsofsky’s friendship hasn’t cooled their desire to best one another on the ice: if anything, it’s made them even more determined. After going 1-1-0 against fellow Stingrays alumnus Jared Bednar’s Colorado Avalanche last month, Carbery held back a smile when asked if the chance to beat Warsofsky gave him extra motivation.
“Yeah,” he said. “Anytime [I play] Wars, who I’ve gotten to know really well over our time that we spent together and developing our friendship, he’s an ultra-competitive guy, so anytime you can stick it to him, it’s a good day.”
Carbery knows Warsofsky won’t make the job easy. The Sharks have shown marked improvement since going on a nine-game losing streak to start the season, putting up a record of 9-6-3 in their last 18 games. After seeing what he can do up close, Carbery wasn’t surprised to see Warsofsky’s team start to find their footing.
“[They] compete their butts off, continue to get better,” Carbery said of the Sharks. “And you just know you’re going to get a really, really hardworking, competitive team…that’s not a surprise to me because I know him very well. They’re going to push us [Tuesday] night, I can guarantee you that.”
Warsofsky was similarly unsurprised to see the Capitals — who now sit fourth in the NHL with a record of 17-6-1 — do so well under Carbery.
“No, not surprised whatsoever,” he said. “I know people around the league say that, but you saw what they did this last year going to the playoffs. They’ll be right there again at the end of this year, just the way he galvanizes the team, the way they get to play for each other. Obviously, you watch his press conferences, you watch the videos after games, the passion and what he’s done here is not a surprise to me. Just because I know how good of a coach he is.”
Tuesday will mark the pair’s first game against each other as NHL head coaches, but it won’t be the first time they’ve faced each other from opposing benches. Besides games in both the AHL and NHL as assistants, Carbery and Warsofsky went toe-to-toe in the 19-20 AHL season, when they served as head coaches of the Hershey Bears and Charlotte Checkers, respectively.
Warsofsky came out on top of that series 4-2-0, thanks in part to his proclivity to throw something unexpected at Carbery in those matchups.
“I have [had tricks up my sleeve] in the past,” he said. “When we coached against each other in the American League, I switched some things up to keep him on his toes a little bit. He knows it’s usually coming sometimes, but we’ll tinker with some things and try to play a little bit of a chess match.
“But at the end of the day, it’s about the players. I know they’ll have a good scouting report on us, we’ll have a good scouting report on them, and then [it’s] who can execute.”
He may not know exactly what’s coming, but Carbery has braced himself for another curveball Tuesday night.
“Oh, I know it,” he said, staring off into the distance. “Every time we play a Warsofsky team, he’s going to do something, one thing off the wall. I’m planning for it. Something will be totally off script that will be different from the pre-scout that we show.”
More than a decade after they first met, Carbery will get a chance to prove his mettle against his former protege once the puck drops at 7 pm.
