Carlson could chase Capitals record if season resumes

John Carlson was having a career season, rewriting the Washington Capitals record book and positioned to potentially win the Norris Trophy voted as the top defenseman in the NHL for the first time.

Then everything was put on hold when the NHL paused the 2019-20 season on March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

While Carlson waits to learn if the season will be resumed, the individual achievements that were within his reach, and the Capitals' aspirations to win the Stanley Cup for the second time in three seasons, have been pushed aside.

"I'm just worried about playing at this point," Carlson said Wednesday. "I don't want to be too optimistic of coming back so quickly and being able to finish the regular season and all that. All I'm thinking about right now is trying to keep myself in the best shape that I can with the circumstances and whatever the rest of the season holds.

"I'll worry about that when I lace the skates up again."

Carlson has always stressed not looking too far ahead, even when he was putting up offensive numbers this season that haven't been seen from an NHL defenseman in decades. That's been one of the keys to his emergence as one of the best defensemen in the League. But there's no question the 30-year-old was having a special season before it was halted.

Carlson leads defensemen and is tied with New York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad for 12th in the League overall with an NHL career-high 75 points (15 goals, 60 assists) in 69 games. Carlson's 60 assists also are an NHL career high, are tops among defensemen and fourth among all players behind Leon Draisaitl of the Edmonton Oilers (67 assists), Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers (63) and Connor McDavid of the Oilers (63).

Carlson was on pace to finish with 89 points, which would break Larry Murphy's Capitals record for points by a defenseman (81 in 1986-87) and be the most in the NHL by a defenseman since Ray Bourque of the Boston Bruins scored 91 points and Sergei Zubov of the Rangers scored 89 in 1993-94.

With 478 points (105 goals, 373 assists) in 757 regular-season games, Carlson became the Capitals leader in points by a defenseman, surpassing Calle Johansson's record of 474, with an assist against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Feb. 23.

"The season he's had has been tremendous, putting up the amount of points that he has and at the same time he has been really solid defensively," said Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman, who won the Norris Trophy in 2018. "Obviously, the points are great, but I think he's been a tremendous defenseman for many, many years. He's an elite defenseman in our league. I think he deserved some recognition earlier, but obviously this year he's been terrific."

Carlson has never been a finalist in Norris Trophy voting. His fourth-place finish last season was the best of his 11-season NHL career.

That seems certain to change whenever the 2020 Bridgestone NHL Awards, which were scheduled for June 18 before being postponed, are handed out. Carlson and Nashville Predators defenseman Roman Josi appeared to be the leading contenders for the Norris before the season was paused.

Carlson, who represented the Capitals at the Honda NHL All-star Game for a second straight season, wasn't ready Wednesday to assess his season because he's hoping it's not over.

"Things are crazy right now," the 30-year-old said. "It's tough to kind of reflect on all of that with hope that we are going to be able to resume again."

Carlson was more focused on the Capitals' play as a team than any individual accomplishments. Washington (41-20-8) is first in the Metropolitan Division but had an up-and-down season, going 26-6-5 in its first 37 games and 15-14-3 after that.

He said the Capitals were showing signs of improvement, though not yet getting the desired results when they were 1-1-2 in the four games before the season was paused.

"I think as a team we weren't where we needed to be probably over the last 30 or so games," Carlson said. "So that was definitely a big talking point for us coming down the stretch and trying to find the right balance of the way that we play. Our systems and all that were kind of, it felt like, starting to come back."

The Capitals will have to wait to see if they'll get a chance to continue that process. In the meantime, Carlson has been getting to spend some unexpected quality time at home with his wife, Gina, and their sons Lucca, 4, and Rudy, who will turn 2 on May 4.

"We've been doing our best trying to come up with as many activities as we can," Carlson said. "I think we're almost down to none of our Easter stuff that we got the kids just from pulling things out and trying to find some ways [to keep them busy]. It's been great to spend a lot of time with them, but it's a change."

NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen contributed to this story