ARLINGTON, Va. — Spencer Carbery may be young for an NHL head coach, but the move he pulled after the Washington Capitals’ Game 2 loss on Tuesday was a veteran one. At least, that’s how older coaches saw it.
In the news conference after the game, Carbery volunteered this bit of analysis to reporters on the team’s franchise player and captain, Alex Ovechkin: “We give up the shortie — O turns that one over, which is a really, really difficult goal to give up.”
It was begging for a follow-up or two. And Carbery got them.
The subsequent questions allowed the 42-year-old coach to point out that the future Hall of Famer has been “a little bit off” and “struggling” as his team fell behind 2-0 in the first-round series but that Ovechkin can easily “flip it” once the Caps return to Capital One Arena for Games 3 and 4 to host the New York Rangers on Friday and Sunday.
Carbery was measured and professional. This wasn’t the case of a ticked-off coach calling out the “Great Eight” or trying to embarrass the 38-year-old icon. But there’s no doubt Carbery’s comments were well-orchestrated and made to ignite the public airwaves.
“Spencer knows the Caps have no shot without Ovi,” said one former coach who asked not to be identified. “So he was trying to get between Ovi’s ears in a public setting to try to spur him along.”
Head coach Spencer Carbery’s full postgame media availability following Game 2 of the #StanleyCup Playoffs in New York.#CapsRangers pic.twitter.com/LcdA1azNVp
— x – Washington Capitals (@Capitals) April 24, 2024
Ovechkin had 23 goals and 36 points in his final 36 games of the regular season, and if he doesn’t start to resemble that type of player, it’s dangerously close to becoming a short postseason for the Capitals. So far, he has no points, one shot on goal, seven shot attempts that have been blocked, three attempts that missed the net and one doozy of a short-handed turnover that turned into a game-winning goal by Rangers defenseman K’Andre Miller.
Much more disconcerting if you’re a Caps fan is just how aggravated Ovechkin looked in the first two losses.
“He can’t do physically what his mind wants him to do,” said Bruce Boudreau, one of Ovechkin’s former Caps coaches, who has spent part of this season as an analyst on the Caps’ Monumental Sports Network. “He’s a very high hockey IQ guy, but he’s standing around and he’s not moving. The same thing happened when I first started covering them earlier this year. I almost wanted to go down and talk to him because he’s letting the play come to him rather than going out and creating the plays.
“And maybe he can’t do it at 38 anymore where he can’t crash, bang and do it with the energy that he used to do it. But he’s standing still getting pucks and when he’s standing still getting pucks, the Rangers are too quick. They come at you too fast. So he doesn’t have time to get out of the way. So it’s frustrating for him.”
Boudreau pointed to the turnover that led to the Rangers’ short-handed goal to make it 4-2, as an example. It was a golden opportunity late in the second period for the Caps to tie the score 3-3. Instead, a cross-ice pass was thrown Ovechkin’s way, Mika Zibanejad pressured him, Ovechkin bobbled the puck and Zibanejad was gone.
K’Andre Miller adds to New York’s lead with a beautiful shorthanded goal, 4-2 Rangers!#NYR pic.twitter.com/MnE5wNaruh
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“Not only was Ovi slow to react, but he had absolutely no idea what to do when they took the puck from him,” Boudreau said. “Instead of going back to the (eventual) goal scorer (Miller), he followed the guy (that took the puck, Zibanejad) right behind the net. This is his 19th year in the league. You don’t lose control of the puck and then chase. When they passed it to the slot, Miller’s his guy. His job was to go back to the middle of the ice. They would’ve had to throw the puck right behind him, but he chased all the way and he ended up behind the net.
“So, to me, he’s not engaged mentally right now. He wants to be, but he’s not because he’s frustrated and things aren’t going the way he wants them to go.”
Carbery is hoping coming home for Games 3 and 4 will allow the Capitals to control Ovechkin’s matchup better and get him away from mostly facing defensemen Ryan Lindgren and Adam Fox and the line of Alexis Lafrenière, Vincent Trocheck and Artemi Panarin at even strength.
GO DEEPER
How the Rangers have contained ‘struggling’ Alex Ovechkin
Carbery said after Thursday’s practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex that he had some good discussions with Ovechkin about how he can get to the interior and get his shot off more frequently.
“I think (I just have to) settle down a little bit,” Ovechkin said Thursday. “You have to be more patient with the puck because I know we play against a good hockey team. They’re going to play harder against our top lines. If we have the puck on our stick, don’t throw it right away. We’ve been in this situation before and know how to handle it.”
Ovechkin said he has to be more physical and do a better job helping out his linemates, Connor McMichael and T.J. Oshie.
Former NHL coach John Torchetti, an NHL Network analyst, pointed out that the Rangers at home were able to go with a hard matchup on Ovechkin because the Caps didn’t have anyone else to create enough offense.
“So now it will be up to Carbery to find him some ideal changes at home with last change and try to free him up from the Rangers’ top D pairing,” Torchetti said.
But Boudreau and another former NHL coach say Ovechkin’s lack of success so far in this series goes well beyond the matchups.
“It doesn’t matter who he plays with, or what (Carbery) does, or whatever,” a former NHL coach said. “He’s standing on the outside hoping something pops free rather than digging his heels in and really competing at a high level. And nothing’s going to change until he digs in.
“There’s no free ice in the playoffs.”
Boudreau agreed.
“It has nothing to do with matchup right now, I don’t think,” Boudreau said. “The Rangers have put their best line against that line because they know the other lines are not even close to the speed and skill compared to Oshie, McMichael and Ovi. I don’t know who they’re going to get, but any of the three lines that they play against are going to be tough on them if Ovi doesn’t exude more effort.
“They can’t just hope this is all matchup. Ovi’s got to go back to what he does and that’s crash and bang and shoot everything. The shot he got on goal (Tuesday) night was in the first period, and usually those ones, when he comes across on the faceoff, he gets them through. Look at his attempt late in the third. It was a frustration, panic shot, not taking a quarter of a second and making sure it got by that guy, the block.”
Alex Ovechkin has seen a lot of Alexis Lafrenière so far in the playoffs. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
Boudreau was referring to a six-on-five shot with 2:47 to go where Dylan Strome won a faceoff and Ovechkin immediately shot the puck right into Barclay Goodrow. This season, 33 percent of Ovechkin’s five-on-five shot attempts got blocked — the second-highest clip of his career. On average, about 29 percent of his shots get blocked.
But this has similarly been a problem on the power play, where Ovechkin is standing stationary in the right circle. All four of his power-play shot attempts have been set up by predictable passes from the point.
“He’s starting to get stagnant on the power play,” Boudreau said. “When they started changing it up and he would play the right point, he would move around. They would move around. Now he’s back, stuck to his position. And I think that they got to give him a different look.”
Added Torchetti, “Chris Kreider is doing a great job on the PK shading to his side, and also when he goes to the top of the PK, he denies the passing lane to Ovi to get his shot off. Anytime Ovi gets a pass on the power play, Kreider is up tight and close so he doesn’t get a good look to get the shot through.”
This was always going to be a tough draw, Boudreau said, because the Caps don’t have enough depth scoring to compete with the Presidents’ Trophy winner.
“They’ve got two 20-goal scorers on their team: Strome and Ovi,” Boudreau said. “And if Ovi’s not going, that drops it down to one. It was bad enough that they scored three goals last night for the second time in 13 games and that wasn’t enough. So defense is the key, and they’ve got to realize that if they win, it’s going to be a 3-2, 2-1 game.”
Added Boudreau, with a chuckle, “And Ovi’s got to get at least one of them.”
Ovechkin’s line with McMichael and Oshie did out-attempt the Rangers 20-12 at five-on-five in Game 2, with shots on goal 10-5 and scoring chances 8-5, per Natural Stat Trick. So the line as a whole did generate looks.
But Carbery says he knows Ovechkin is on his game when he gets four or five good looks a game.
Now he’s not.
“Whether that’s a product of his matchup, whether that’s a product of his line combination, whether he’s playing a role in that, we’ve got to find a way to get him in spots where it’s him and (Igor) Shesterkin and he’s within the top of the circles,” Carbery said. “He can find that in one instance. We get back home and that thing is in a good spot on net. He’ll be good. He’s been through so many situations like this, I expect him to step up big-time in Game 3.”
Asked how he’s felt because Carbery said he’s looked a little off, Ovechkin said, almost with comedic timing, “Not good.”
But Oshie said nobody should worry about Ovechkin.
“I’ve been here, I don’t know, what is it, 10 years maybe, and it seems like at multiple points you hear the narrative of he’s getting too old, too whatever, and he always just finds a way to prove people wrong,” Oshie said. “I have 100 percent faith that he’s going to find his game, especially in front of the home crowd. He thrives on that stuff.”
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)
