Opening Night – It’s been six long months, but the Caps are finally back and playing meaningful hockey tonight when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins at Capital One Arena. The Oct. 13 season opening date is tied for the second latest in franchise history; the Capitals opened the 1977-78 season at home against Pittsburgh on Oct. 14, 1977, the front end of a set of back-to-backs that concluded the next night in Cleveland against Dennis Maruk’s Barons.
The Caps opened the 2016-17 season on Oct. 13, but that season began late because of the World Cup of Hockey in September of that year. Washington also opened the 2021-22 season on Oct. 13, but that campaign was pushed back a bit to accommodate the late-starting, pandemic-abbreviated season that preceded it.
“I think everyone is really excited,” says Caps’ center Dylan Strome. “A little too long of an offseason. I think everyone’s hungry and I feel like everyone in this room as something to prove. We’re going to try to batten down the hatches tonight and play a solid game tonight. Obviously, [the Pens] have already played one, so we’ve got to get our feet under us at the beginning of the game and then adjust from there.”
Pittsburgh opened its season at home with a 4-2 loss to Chicago on Tuesday.
“We’re really excited about it,” echoes Caps’ defenseman Trevor van Riemsdyk. “New coaching staff, a little bit of a new system, and they’ve done a great job of communicating of what’s expected and how we want to play. I think that has led to some success, and then hopefully we can carry it over into the regular season here.
“We all know what we need to do, how we need to play, and it’s always exciting to get another year started.”
It’s A Long Way To The Top – Thirteen years ago this month, Spencer Carbery’s coaching career got underway when the then-28-year-old native of Victoria, B.C. traded his uniform for a suit, stepping behind the bench of the ECHL South Carolina Stingrays to serve as an assistant coach under then-Stingrays bench boss Cail MacLean.
On May 30, the Caps named Carbery the 20th head coach in franchise history, and he becomes the only one of those coaches to ascend each level of the Capitals’ organizational ladder, from South Carolina to AHL Hershey, and now, to the District. He has coached in four different leagues and in three different NHL organizations, and tonight he finally etches his name into the books as the coach of record for an NHL club.
“It’s been a nice 24 hours, reflecting a little bit, talking to some people, getting some texts and messages and that,” says Carbery. “It’s going to be an exciting night. I’m looking forward to it; there’s some family in town and that.
“And I usually catch myself after about 15 seconds of that. Now, there’s a large task at hand with the Penguins and making sure that we’re as prepared as possible and we’re doing everything that we can to make sure that our group is ready to go at 7:30 tonight.”
Carbery’s days in South Carolina started when he was still active as a player. Playing for Jared Bednar – now the Colorado Avalanche’s head coach – when Bednar’s own coaching career was in its infancy, Carbery and the Stingrays won the Kelly Cup in 2008-09, a championship that launched Bednar to the AHL, and put MacLean behind the Stingrays’ bench as his successor.
From there, Carbery replaced MacLean first as an assistant and then as head coach in South Carolina, and Ryan Warsofsky later replaced Carbery behind the Stingrays’ bench. These days, all four men are coaching in the NHL. Bednar and Carbery are head coaches, while MacLean is an assistant in Calgary and Warsofsky is an assistant in San Jose. None ever played in the NHL, but all four served successive terms as South Carolina bench bosses, and they followed the guy who is credited with starting the remarkable Charleston coaching tree, Jason Fitzsimmmons, former Stingrays goalie and later coach, and now Caps’ pro scout/minor league operations.
“It started with Fitzy, Jason Fitzsimmons,” states Bednar. “He was our goalie [in South Carolina], and then went up to be the assistant coach and the head coach. He is a good friend of mine, and still to this day he lives down in Charleston and works for the Caps. He left and started getting into scouting and management with the Caps, and then came myself, Cail, Carbs and Warso.
“The ownership group down in South Carolina, the culture that they wanted to build, the quality people that they wanted to bring in, and the way they wanted things to run, it was really important to all of us. And each individual guy sort of identified the next guy that could come up and help as his assistant and be the successor. I think we were all looking for the same characteristics in the guy that would come help us as the head coach, and guys that would be able to take over and continue the tradition and the culture that we’ve built there over time, and it’s a great relationship.
“We have a text chain of ex-Stingray coaches that we jump on every once in a while, and we pick each other’s brains. And then over the phone and on the road, if you end up in one of the other guys’ city, we try to get together for dinner, to have a chat and see how things are going, and bounce ideas off each other. It’s a good strong network of supportive people that are in similar situations and deal with the same things, so it helps us all professionally. And obviously they’re all great guys and good friends, so it’s nice to catch up with them and see how they’re doing and if you can help out in any way. It’s a strong connection and I’m ecstatic to be a part of it.”
Bednar is also happy to have Carbery as one of his head coaching peers in the League, and to welcome him to the NHL head coaching fraternity.
“I think you just keep going about your work and refining your craft, and eventually people are going to take notice,” says Bednar of Carbery’s coaching climb. “I’m sure [Caps’ GM] Brian [MacLellan] and the staff there noticed early on in South Carolina that this could be a guy that could coach for us in Hershey, and if he continues to grow, then one day with the Caps.
“And even though he went to junior and then went to Toronto, you know they’re still keeping him on their radar. When you've been around the game long enough, it's pretty obvious that he deserves a chance, and he has earned that chance. I’m really happy for him.”
Bring It On Home – Since the Alex Ovechkin/Nicklas Backstrom era began at the outset of the 2007-08 season, the Capitals own a 377-169-72 record in regular season home games, the third best mark (.668 points pct.) in the NHL over that span. But that points percentage at home has taken a hit over the last three seasons. Washington has won fewer than half (54-40-16, .564 points pct.) of its home games in the last three seasons, ranking 18th in home ice record over that span.
The Caps finished last season with just four victories in their final 16 home contests (4-8-4). With eight of their first 11 games and 12 of their first 17 games at home, straightening out their recent home woes could help pave the way for a swift start to the Capitals’ season.
“I can be honest with you and say that we haven’t focused on whether it’s home or road,” says Carbery. “It’s our identity in general. I certainly understand the impacts of winning games at home, and utilizing that to your advantage, and your home crowd and all that stuff that goes into it. And the way our schedule sets up, it’s important that we’re playing well right away, frankly. It puts maybe even more of an emphasis, because there are a lot of home games early in the year for us.
“But we want to make sure that our game is in order, and it’s sometimes challenging at the beginning of the year – and you can see it all around the League – of getting your group on the same page. And playing the way you want to be structurally is a challenge, and that’s what I’ve really pushed to our group through training camp, and hopefully it shows [Friday] night.”
In The Nets – Congratulations to Darcy Kuemper and family; Kuemper’s wife gave birth to the couple’s son late Thursday night, and all are reported to be doing well. Kuemper was initially slated to start the season opener against Pittsburgh tonight, but the Caps may yet pivot to Charlie Lindgren for the opening night netminding chores.
“We’re very happy for the Kuemper family,” says Carbery. “And we’ll see. They were obviously at the hospital last night, so we’ll see how today goes, and if we have to make some adjustments lineup-wise, we will this afternoon.
“We just have to be careful with setting players up for success, in terms of he has been up a lot. We just want to be mindful of the fact that we want to put him in a position to have success. So we’ll figure that out this afternoon, and we may have to make some according lineup decisions based off of that.”
Lifetime against the Penguins, Kuemper is 3-4-1 with a 3.08 GAA and a .910 save pct. in eight appearances, all starts. Lindgren has yet to play against the Penguins in his NHL career.
We are expecting to see Tristan Jarry in the Pittsburgh nets tonight. Jarry started the Pens’ season opener on Tuesday against Chicago, absorbing the loss while stopping 32 of 35 shots in a 4-2 setback. Lifetime against the Capitals, Jarry is 5-4-1 with a 3.08 GAA and a .905 save pct. in 10 career appearances, all starts.
All Lined Up – Here is how we believe the Capitals might line up for Friday’s opening night contest against the Penguins, with a season-long caveat that most morning skates will now be optional for all players. That may make lineup accuracy more difficult to pin down on mornings of games, and today is no exception. What’s listed below is a hunch based on the reading of the morning lineup tea leaves, since no actual line rushes were taken this morning:
WASHINGTON
Forwards
8-Ovechkin, 19-Backstrom, 77-Oshie
24-McMichael, 92-Kuznetsov, 43-Wilson
15-Milano, 17-Strome, 45-Phillips
47-Malenstyn, 26-Dowd, 39-Mantha
Defensemen
38-Sandin, 74-Carlson
42-Fehervary, 57-van Riemsdyk
46-Johansen 3-Jensen
Goaltenders
35-Kuemper
79-Lindgren
Injured
6-Edmundson (hand)
67-Pacioretty (torn Achilles’ tendon)
Scratches
27-Alexeyev
PITTSBURGH
Forwards
59-Guentzel, 87-Crosby, 17-Rust
19-Smith, 71-Malkin, 67-Rakell
10-O’Connor, 20-Eller, 43-Harkins
83-Nieto, 55-Acciari, 77-Carter
Defensemen
27-Graves, 58-Letang
28-Pettersson, 65-Karlsson
73-Joseph, 2-Ruhwedel
Goaltenders
35-Jarry
39-Nedeljkovic
Injured
None
Scratches
5-Shea
7-Ludvig
