ARLINGTON, VA — Few head coaches have been in Spencer Carbery’s shoes.
When Carbery arrived in DC in 2023, he became the eighth head coach of Alex Ovechkin’s NHL career, joining a rarefied group that’s helped lead Ovechkin throughout his two decades in the league. But with Ovechkin now three goals away from passing Wayne Gretzky for the all-time goals record, it’s Carbery’s name that will soon be etched into the history books when Ovechkin finally reaches the mountaintop.
Carbery, still the second-youngest head coach in the NHL, is plenty aware of the part that he’s playing in Ovechkin’s legacy — he’s recognized that role since he first got behind the Capitals’ bench, and it’s only gotten more tangible over time.
“To be as fortunate to be able to coach one of the greatest players to ever put a pair of skates on is pretty special, and I don’t take that lightly,” Carbery said Friday. “The appreciation of being able to be around him and watch him play and be able to coach him on a day-to-day basis.
“I remember saying this when I first got hired last year — I take a huge responsibility in being the coach that, not just the record, but he finishes his career the way that he wants to and finishes it the right way, playing at a high level. So I take the onus on myself to put him in good positions, communicate the right messages, everything. There’s a lot that goes into that. The last two years coaching him and having the privilege to do that, I don’t take that lightly at all.”
Carbery was just 23 when Ovechkin made his NHL debut, then playing his final Division III season at St. Norbert College. Even watching him rise through the ranks from the outside, Ovechkin’s enthusiastic approach to the game made Carbery take notice.
“The uniqueness of him, and what always stuck out, was the hunger and the passion and fire to score,” he said. “That was different. It looked different, when you saw the highlights and saw his reaction and how he celebrated. Whether it was a 2-1 goal or whether it was a goal in the Stanley Cup Final, it all looked the same.
“And so when you watch hockey your whole life, when you see him react to scoring, that’s why everybody — a lot of players even talk about this. They’ve never seen someone that celebrates and enjoys scoring like Alex Ovechkin. And I think that’s probably, as we’ve all seen thousands and thousands of goals and players score and goal scorers, there’s tons of them in the league to this day — I think that maybe is the thing that looks optically different when you watch Ovi score.”
Of course, enthusiasm alone didn’t propel Ovechkin to his legendary status. Decades of greatness have seen Ovechkin stand out in a variety of ways, from his lethal one-timer to his extraordinary durability. Even in the smaller details of his game, Carbery noticed, Ovechkin could do things with the puck no one else could, turning chances that should have been muffins into gold.
“I’ve never seen someone that can shoot a rolling puck like Alex Ovechkin,” Carbery said. “Normally, you ask any player that played the game, when you get a rolling puck and you one-time it or you catch it and you take a wrist shot, usually you don’t know where that’s going. You’re just trying to get it to the area.
“I’ve never seen, and with his curve, a puck will flip up and I’ll slow-mo it — I’ll watch and I’ll go, ‘Oh my gosh, it rolled up on him…’ For him to shoot a rolling puck as accurate as he does, in a slap shot or wrist shot, is remarkable. And I’ve never seen anybody that can do that.”
With Ovechkin now three goals away from sole possession of the record, the attention of the hockey world is now on Washington. Well over a dozen media members attended morning skate ahead of Friday’s game against the Chicago Blackhawks, while Wayne Gretzky plans to be in attendance at Capital One Arena. What would otherwise be a routine April game between one of the league’s worst teams and a Capitals squad locked into a playoff spot instead has the chance to be the leading story in sports.
Carbery knows he’s in uncharted waters. The biggest games of his career so far came last season in a first-round playoff series with the New York Rangers — he’s now tasked with coaching what could become one of the most significant regular-season games in league history. But while Carbery can’t deny the significance of the moment, he knows that his ultimate task remains the same as always, regardless of the stakes.
“There’s a lot going on right now and I’m very cognizant of that and understanding of that,” he said. “And look, this is my first time going through something like this. I don’t know, there’s not a lot of coaches that have been through this and it’s my job to navigate and try to protect in some areas, try to keep the group focused. You also have to understand and you can’t be oblivious to what’s going on.
“So it’s a fine line of us making sure that we appreciate the history and what’s going on and everything that surrounds it, and then being able to, when the puck drops, do the things that we need to do to be successful as a team — which in turn will set Ovi up for success. And staying in the moment and not trying to block out the extra characters or force pucks or do things that are uncharacteristic of our group. And so that’s my job, to try to channel all the external factors and make sure that we’re focused on the task at hand as a group.”
