Spencer Carbery, not dressed as Beetlejuice, gives the Junkies some insight on Tuesday's win over the Rangers
Spencer Carbery will be busy on Halloween night, as the Capitals host the Canadiens at Cap One, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t in the spirit – he dressed up as the title character for a Beetlejuice-themed staff get-together, a costume it took him about an hour to get into with ‘significant help’ from his wife.
Of course, there was a lot to celebrate, especially after the Caps defeated the defending Presidents Trophy winner Rangers, a game that had a lot of extra juice at Cap One with former coach Peter Laviolette back in town leading the team that ended Washington’s 2023-24 season.
“You could definitely feel it, and the Rangers as we know, their fan base travels well, so there were a couple thousand Rangers fans in the building and you can see it right away,” Carbery told the Junkies on Wednesday.
“It gets almost like a little bit of tension early on, trying to outdo each other, and they're sitting at the top of the conference, so it's a good opportunity for us. We lose down in Tampa, but come back home to play the top team in the conference, and have an opportunity to put on display what we believe that we're capable of doing as a team against one of the best teams in the league on home ice on national TV.”
One downside to yesterday’s win was Jakub Chychrun going down early with an injury, forcing the other five defensemen to log extra minutes, but they made it through.
“If it's halfway through, you can manage those minutes, but because it was so early, it really taxed our other five guys,” Carbs said. “and then (Dylan McIlrath) was in the box for six minutes, seven minutes there, so then you add a few more minutes here and there. But our D corps battled through last night in tough circumstances. We'll find out (about Chychrun) more today, I’m hoping that it's not going to be too long-term, and Matty Roy is also getting close to getting back to game action, so hopefully we get some good news today and it's not too long.”
The reason McIlrath was in the box so long? He and Matt Rempe dropped the gloves, rekindling a feud from a couple seasons ago in the AHL, and bad blood Rempe boiled for questionable hits in last year’s playoffs on both TJ Oshie and Trevor Van Riemsdyk.
“It was (entertaining), and you could feel it. With him being recalled, you kind of could feel like, okay, he's probably looking to make a statement here and try to stay in the NHL and stay in the lineup,” Carbery said. “Mac answered the bell, and it was two absolute warriors going at it. Mac got the crowd fired up and his teammates right from the get go, and I think that set the tone for our entire night.”
They got the win, thanks in part to Ovi’s two latest tallies in the chase for Gretzky, and 6-2 feels good.
“It's been a real pleasant surprise how (the offense is playing), because we implemented a lot of stuff, some new things, and you hope that you're gonna hit the ground running and it'll look like a finished product right away,” Carbery said, “but as a coach, you're like, okay, this is probably gonna take a little bit of time, and then you add personnel, so it’s gonna take a little bit of time to create some chemistry, but we’ve been able to hit the ground running, and guys are feeling food about ther game and there’s confidence in the building.”
Take a listen to Carbs’ entire visit, as he talks about prepping for Montreal and the tough slate ahead, the continued excellence of Alex Ovechkin, and more!
