The Capitals have three games in four days to nd 2023, starting tonight at MSG against the white-hot Rangers, and when head coach Spencer Carbery joined JP and Cakes for his weekly visit with the Junks Wednesday, he confirmed that the Christmas break was, indeed, a nice mental reset for him.
“I did 48 hours,” Carbery laughed. “Yesterday I went in to get ready for the Rangers.”
A good break, too, because the Caps have played four straight overtime games and six in their last nine, so they needed a blow before heading off to play the conference kingpins.
“That’s why I say the mental break, because we play in a lot of tight, low-scoring games, so each shift becomes amplified,” Carbs said. “I think we’ve done a pretty good job in the overtimes, but it's mentally taxing.”
Saturday was a 2-1 loss to Tampa in the last game before the break, so not the result they wanted, and Carbery said he didn’t like the way the team started that night – and, he admits, he can tell within a few minutes where his team stands for the night.
“Usually I can tell in the first two rotations, so with four lines that’s eight shifts – I can usually tell if we are on point, or if the opponent is maybe a little bit hungry a little bit quicker than we are early in the game,” Carbs said. “Usually you try to jump on that right away, and the guys are smart; they know they can feel it out on the ice, and that's where we try to find ways as a coach to change momentum, maybe shift lines or switch the rotation, try to do something differently to catch their attention.”
There’s a lot that goes into that, too, and knowing who to put together and what might work best if what they started with isn’t, and the players have input on that, too.
That is, in part, what has helped the power play thrive of late, and that’s something they’ll need to battle the 23-8-1 Blueshirts.
“Way more consistent, more of an identity and everybody's way more connected with what we're doing, so it’s not a surprise or just happenstance that now all of a sudden pucks are going in the net,” Carbs said. “We were getting unlucky at the beginning of the year with not finishing and a lot of chances not going in, and that's changed a little bit, which is nice, but it also looks a lot better.”
Take a listen to Carbery’s entire segment above, where he goes into Anthony Mantha's surge, the performances of Ivan Miroshnichenko and Hendrix LaPierre during their short stints in DC, some other young players primed to make an impact soon, and more!