Carbery wants to see the 5-foot-8 forward get back to playing at the high level that earned him a spot with the Capitals in the first place.
To open the 2023-24 campaign, Matthew Phillips was the biggest story for the Washington Capitals.
The 5-foot-8 forward had defied the odds and outplayed several players to earn an opening night roster spot. After a few games, that spark started to fizzle out, and he went from a top-6 role to fighting for minutes.
However, for head coach Spencer Carbery, the plan isn't for Phillips to fade away — and it never was. Instead, it's to get him back to his highest level of play.
"I'm trying to just get him into a spot sort of back where I felt like he was just so impactful at the beginning of the year, shift to shift, and hopefully, he can regain that here," Carbery said.
Phillips broke out with a multi-point outing and scored his first NHL goal and added an assist against his former team in the Calgary Flames, and amid a slow start, was one of the catalysts on offense. However, with him and the team struggling to generate much up front beyond that game out of the gate, he was demoted, and as a result, his play and ice time took another big hit.
"I feel like Matty, especially in training camp and to start the year, I thought he was playing as good as any of our forwards," Carbery said. "Different skill set, but he was playing at a real high level... I feel like his play has sort of dipped a little since maybe those first four, five games.
"There's a couple of things you can attribute that to. He started playing top-6. we don't get out of the gate well from a results standpoint — not that he was a product of that, we just weren't scoring, we weren't winning games — we just had to change that mix," Carbery added. "Now he's more of a bottom-6 role, not playing as many minutes, had some games there, a few in a row where he's playing, 7-8 minutes. Harder for a guy like him and a guy and his skill set to play in those roles and have a real impact."
Over the last couple of games, though, Phillips has been able to pick things up. He picked up an assist in Saturday's win over the New York Islanders and had some good chemistry on the third line with Aliaksei Protas and Connor McMichael. And, with Anthony Mantha still on the shelf after taking a puck to the face last Wednesday, Phillips will continue to get more responsibility and power play time on Tuesday against the Vegas Golden Knights.
That said, Carbery feels that the 25-year-old is closing in on getting his play back to where it was to open the year, and it all starts with a plan: getting him top-6 minutes and power-play time.
"I felt like he's had some good games of late. Not only to set up the one goal but there were some things that caught my eye.... he'll get an opportunity to get a key role on the power play potentially tonight," Carbery added at the optional morning skate.
Puck drop between the Capitals and Golden Knights is at 7 p.m. at Capital One Arena.