The Capitals first-year head coach sees his veteran group falling into "young" habits.
The Washington Capitals were supposed to take the ice at noon for a Friday practice, but plans changed with the team making the skate optional and allowing players to leave after morning meetings.
Sonny Milano, Alex Alexeyev, Lucas Johansen, T.J. Oshie and Max Pacioretty were the only players to take the optional skate.
For head coach Spencer Carbery, it was an important step for the group to take after a 5-4 shootout loss to the Dallas Stars that weighed heavy, with the team giving up each of its leads en route to its third straight defeat.
"Today, we felt like it was important, with the road trip and the amount of games that we had, just to take a bit of a deep breath here and get more guys away from what went on last night and then reset, recharge and get ready for tomorrow," Carbery explained. "We'll address some of that stuff (from Thursday) tomorrow... we sent them on their way."
Washington had taken control at critical moments against Dallas, but breakdowns in coverage, a goaltender interference penalty for Tom Wilson to start the third period and some other "head-scratching mistakes" would allow Dallas to force overtime and a shootout, where the Capitals fell in the skills competition.
"We get to 3-1, and then it falls completely apart, a lot of mistakes and we just make a lot of work to do. We got a lot of work to do," Carbery said after the game. "We make some mistakes that just constantly are just digging ourselves, and it's our whole lineup. Like our entire lineup — top to bottom — is just making massive, massive mistakes that you can't make at this level if you expect to win hockey games. Simply put."
Carbery also expressed his frustration that Washington, a mainly veteran group, is falling into "young" habits.
"We've got a long way to go to grow as a team. You just don't make those mistakes when you're trying to win games and protect leads and do those sorts of things... We gotta learn from these things, and the young guys have to process, understand time, situation, momentum, decision-making, puck play," Carbery said, adding, "It just looks like that's all young stuff... we're doing all of those things that a young team are doing. Frustrating."
It doesn't help that those errors and misplays are also plaguing the core group of veterans, Alex Ovechkin included.
"We have enough veteran guys [to fix it], but I feel like they're struggling as well. So now, and this is part of where it feels like it's coming from the coaches and the accountability part. When they're struggling, how are they supposed to hold (Aliaksei Protas) accountable? (Connor) McMichael? They just can't, because they're in the same spot," Carbery noted.
At the end of the day, when it comes to fixing what's broken, it starts at the top for the 41-year-old bench boss.
"That's what we gotta sort out is our veteran guys being able to lead by example and show the way and talk to the young guys and talk through situations like that," Carbery said. "They're struggling in their own right right now, and that's what you're seeing."