One more week before the Junkies officially cue up some Luke Bryan for Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery’s weekly segments, but even without the music, Coach Carbs was singing the praises of his team after they got their first win of the season Monday night in a shootout – a game that saw his first win as a head coach, and first game puck from Alexander Ovechkin.
“First as a head coach, or first goal, that’s where you get the puck, and they’ll do something going forward that’s a player-driven thing when we win,” Carbery said. “We don’t have anything yet but it will come organically – they’ll find something they can rally around and use.”
The Caps won after being outshot 18-3 in the first period, but it’s how many go in the net that count,
“It’s a little bit of a unique style with Clagary where they’re a shot volume team; any time they get the puck, even a low-percentage shot, it’s coming to the net,” Carbs said. “There’s a lot of stuff through the first two games we’re working through and trying to get on the same page sooner than later, and so have to get some things sorted out.
Ovi didn’t have any official shot attempts in that game, but Carbery isn’t worried based on his style of play, noting they’ll make some adjustments to see if he can get going but he’s confident in his superstar.
So maybe Ovi, Dylan Strome, and Tom Wilson getting a look as the top line?
“Yeah, we just felt like we needed to get a different look, not just offensively but in all three zones defensively,” Carbery said. “Stromer and O played together for large stretches last year and had some success together, so I think that sort of the reasoning they're pairing them up. And then Tom Wilson's someone that can retrieve pucks, gets up and down, plays that type of game, so he can help those guys from a puck recovery standpoint from a forechecking standpoint.”
That leaves an opening on the third line, which has been the Caps’ best through two games – especially Matt Phillips, who had a couple points Monday to get the team to OT and the shootout and come away with a win.
Something, really, most teams don’t prepare for?
“There’s some schools of thought that say don’t practice (shootout) just let the players feel their way in the moment, so they don’t overthink it,” Carbery said. “We went through this in the preseason; I asked a lot of our main guys if they wanted to do it in the preseason, and (Kuznetsov) said he did – and he’s flying down the ice in the preseason, and I wondered if he was trying to keep the league off-balance on what he’s gonna do!”
There was controversy that Kuzi’s slow move ‘made a mockery of the shootout,’ but Carbery wasn’t worried because there’s no time limit, so what’s the issue – especially if it works?
“It’s just really, really difficult because it, because you never see moments like that in practice or in a game, so it's tough for the goalies to control their depth of how deep they get in the net,” Carbery said. “Goalies have to challenge; they come off of their line on 99 percent of shots, but as you get closer, they have to sort of back in, but their spacing and their depth gets all jacked up when you come at that speed.”
Going back to the line itself, though, Carbery is confident that moving Nicklas Backstrom down to play with Phillips and Sonny Milano in Strome’s spot will be aces, as well.
“Getting Backy between those two guys that are playing well right now…Milano has some pace to his game and can skate, and Matty Phillips is really smart, can find areas,” Carbery said, “so we'll look at that tonight and see where it goes.”
Take a listen to Carbery’s entire segment above, which includes more thoughts on Wednesday’s game in Ottawa, how he’s finding life as a head coach so far, and more!
