ARLINGTON, VA — Spencer Carbery had quite the adventure over the 4 Nations Face-Off break as what should have been a simple trip turned into a saga of cancelled flights, rerouting, and cross-border hitchhiking, with a key assist coming from Capitals assistant coach Scott Allen.
Carbery was set to fly to Quebec City for his son’s Pee-Wee hockey tournament, but the second leg of his flight got cancelled, forcing him to get creative. In what turned out to be the easiest leg of the trip, the Carberys hit the road in a rental car for the drive out east.
“I had a planes, trains, and automobiles situation going on for sure,” Carbery said, laughing, after practice on Wednesday. “Yeah, I ended up having to drive. So, I missed the connector in Toronto, so got stuck in Toronto. I ended up just renting a car and driving to Quebec City. That was an adventure. My son missed their first game, unfortunately, but it was an exhibition game.”
After taking in some hockey and seeing the sights in Quebec City, Carbery’s trip back to DC made the drive out look simple. More winter weather struck the East Coast ahead of the Capitals’ first return practice in DC on Wednesday, cancelling his planned flight home. Having already returned his rental car after the drive up, Carbery and his son relied on another player’s father, who drove them back across the border.
“And then, coming home, the storm started,” he said. “I knew the flight was going to get canceled from Quebec City to – I was connected in Montreal – so I hitched a ride with one of the other dads to Boston, and it was like blizzards the whole way, eight hours, white-knuckling it.”
Carbery had booked a last-minute flight from Boston back to DC, but the storm forced yet another cancellation once he arrived in Massachusetts, stranding him for the third time in less than a week. This time, however, he called on a key member of his coaching staff for the assist to carpool back to Washington.
“I had a Delta flight — I had a flight booked from Logan to here, and it got canceled,” he said. “I ended up in Boston, so I hitched a ride with Scotty Allen. So it was, yeah — but fun experience.”
Allen’s Uber rating is unknown, but the Boston-area local got Carbery back to DC safe and sound. Ending the break with a total of three cancelled flights and more than 20 hours in the car, Carbery arrived in time to lead Washington’s first practice back at MedStar Capitals Iceplex Wednesday morning.
