The Washington Capitals' Spencer Carbery didn't shy away from difficult decisions in his rookie season as an NHL coach. He credits his ECHL beginnings as part of that.
Spencer CarberyIn his first year as Washington Capitals coach this past season, Spencer Carbery had success getting his players to come together and make the playoffs on the last day of the season. Here's an excerpt from The Hockey News' Rookie Issue released in January, with updated information.
Spencer Carbery, who is the second-youngest head coach in the NHL, was technically a rookie in 2023-24. But any illusions that the 42-year-old wasn’t cut out for the job went out the window early in the season when he made Evgeny Kuznetsov a healthy scratch.
It was a move that wasn’t made lightly.
At the time, Kuznetsov was heading into his 700th career game. But with only nine points in his first 19 games and with the Washington Capitals struggling to keep their heads above water in the crowded and competitive Eastern Conference, Carbery needed to send a message – even if it meant embarrassing a veteran who five-and-a-half years earlier had helped the franchise win its first and only Stanley Cup.
“It’s s---, but you gotta accept sometimes and trust the process,” Kuznetsov said after being a healthy scratch. “I love ‘Carbs’ so much. I trust what he’s doing, and he’s trying to help me find my game and get better and help the team because I know that I gotta be better in every area.”
Anytime a coach tells a player that he needs a mental reset, there’s more going on behind the scenes than a lack of production. This wasn’t about performance. It was more about attitude and about setting a standard of expectation. Not just for Kuznetsov, but for the entire roster.
“There’s a lot of challenging decisions that come everyday that you have to make as a head coach,” Carbery said. “But that one was definitely, from a public perspective, a pretty big statement. You’re making a decision on a high-profile player who has accomplished so much in his career that they’re not going to play that night. But that comes with the territory as a head coach.
“You have to sometimes make decisions that not everyone is going to agree with. And ‘Kuz’ definitely did not agree with it. But it was being done for the betterment of the player, from my eyes, and the team.”
In other words, Carbery is not looking like the second coming of Bruce Boudreau. He’s not a players’ coach. The way it’s going, he probably has more in common with drill sergeants such as Dale Hunter and Barry Trotz, which is exactly what is needed for a team that is trying to remain competitive while rebuilding.
After all, the Capitals, who missed the playoffs last season after eight consecutive post-season appearances, are in a transition period. They’re still being led by Alex Ovechkin, T.J. Oshie and John Carlson. But with Nicklas Backstrom’s career basically over and Kuznetsov traded to the Carolina Hurricanes, they need to start thinking about a future that involves players who are under the age of 25.
For now, the man guiding the team toward that uncertain future is a rookie bench boss who “feels like (he’s) been coaching for ages.”
"It's a crazy story. I literally had zero intentions of coaching and had never thought about it." - Spencer CarberyCarbery never set out to be an NHL head coach. In a lot of ways, he never really sought out to be an NHLer at all.
The scrappy winger from Victoria, B.C., was on his fifth minor-league team in four years when he finally came to the realization that his dream of playing in the AHL – much less the NHL – probably wasn’t going to happen. By then, it wasn’t really a surprise.
Carbery was never drafted. Having played for a Div. III college, he wasn’t even on any NHL team’s radar. Once school ended, Carbery got an offer from the Central League and then spent the next several years jumping from team to team in the ECHL, doing whatever he could to stay in the lineup. He was a forward. But with 48 career goals and 638 penalty minutes, the 6-foot-2 enforcer was known more for his fists than his finesse with the puck. And he was getting older.
In the summer of 2010, the 28-year-old Carbery was at a crossroads: he could spend another year toiling in the minors, or he could put his finance degree to good use and get a real job. Initially, he chose the latter. But when nothing materialized, Carbery called back his coach with the ECHL’s South Carolina Stingrays and asked if he could return for one more season.
“Sure,” said the voice on the other end of the phone. With one caveat.
“Have you ever thought about coaching?” asked Stingrays coach Cail MacLean. “We have an assistant coach role, and I’d like you to consider it.”
“No, thanks,” Carbery said. “I’d like to play one more year.”
“Well, I’m not asking you to play,” MacLean said.
It was a not-so-subtle way of telling Carbery that his playing days were officially over. And it ended up being the push that Carbery needed to kick-start his next career.
“It’s a crazy story,” Carbery said. “I literally had zero intentions of coaching and had never thought about it or aspired to do it. I never really even considered it.”
This is an excerpt from Michael Traikos' feature in The Hockey News' special 2024 Rookie Issue, which took a deep-dive look at Capitals coach Spencer Carbery in his first year behind Washington's bench.
With what the expectations will be for Carbery next season, here's Adam Proteau:
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