Spencer Carbery has spent his Capitals tenure recognizing players for their achievements with a game puck. On Monday, he got one of his own.
The Capitals’ 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings on Monday marked Carbery’s 100th victory as the team’s head coach, and captain Alex Ovechkin made sure to recognize the milestone.
“Carbs, 100th win,” Ovechkin said, presenting Carbery with a game puck.
“So two years and 19 games,” Carbery said after his players demanded a speech. “It’s been, I speak for my family as well, it has been the ride of a lifetime, the last two-plus years working with you guys every day and getting to show up at the rink and working with the staff here. So this is a big thank you.”
“We gave him his puck, just as we would (for) one of the fellas, celebrated him,” Nic Dowd said of the moment.
Carbery was hired ahead of the 2023-24 season when he replaced Peter Laviolette behind the bench.
The Victoria, British Columbia native reached 100 wins in just 183 games, posting a record of 100-61-22 during that span. He is tied for the 23rd-fastest head coach in league history to reach the milestone and is the fourth-fastest to do so for the Capitals, trailing only Barry Trotz (159 games), Bruce Boudreau (164), and Peter Laviolette (175).
“God honest truth, I did not know that,” Carbery told the media afterward. “Pretty humbling, just be able to coach in the National Hockey League and coach this great organization. My family and I to think about — the guys brought it up — the two years and 19 games, it’s flown by. But we’ve had the time of our lives, and just count the lucky stars every day.”
Carbery first got his start in coaching in 2010-11 as an assistant coach for South Carolina Stingrays, where he’d previously spent two seasons as an alternate captain. After six years behind the bench for the Stingrays, including five as head coach and director of hockey operations, he spent time with the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit and AHL’s Providence Bruins, then returned to the Capitals organization as head coach of the Hershey Bears in 2018.
After two years as assistant coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Carbery became the youngest coach in the league when the Capitals hired him in 2023. His performance last season, which saw the Capitals lead the Eastern Conference with a record of 51-22-9, led to Carbery winning the Jack Adams Award in just his second season. With that milestone, he became the first coach ever to win coach of the year in the NHL (Capitals, 2024-25), AHL (Hershey Bears, 2020-21), and ECHL (South Carolina Stingrays, 2013-14).
Now, Carbery has added yet another feather to his cap.
“That’s a big accomplishment, for anybody to win 100 games in the NHL,” Nic Dowd said.
