The Washington Capitals have a lot of new players who came into the fold this summer. Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Mangiapane, Jakob Chychrun, Matt Roy, and Logan Thompson are all going to make their Capitals debuts this upcoming season. The man in charge of incorporating the new talents and figuring out the lineup is head coach Spencer Carbery. The second-year bench boss had a good first season with Washington. The team made the postseason, but got eliminated in a four-game sweep by the New York Rangers. Carbery is going to take the new roster before him and try helping them get back to the playoffs, and build on what was accomplished last season.

Spencer Carbery’s First NHL Season

Spencer Carbery took over as Capitals head coach, after the team and previous bench boss Peter Laviolette parted ways. Carbery had been head coach of Washington’s AHL affiliate Hershey Bears from 2018 until 2021. After that, he went to the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he was an assistant coach under Sheldon Keefe. He left the Leafs to become the Capitals coach prior to the 2023-24 campaign.

During his first season behind the bench in Washington, Carbery coached the Capitals to a 40-31-11 record for 91 points. They made the playoffs by clinching the second wild card spot. They beat out the Detroit Red Wings, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Philadelphia Flyers; who all were on the cusp of making the playoffs but just fell short in the process. Before getting to the issues during Carbery’s first season, he deserves credit for getting the organization into the postseason in his first season. It shows the buy-in his players had in his system, and Carbery is a smart coach who was able to get a lot out of his players.

Not Enough Goal-Scoring

One of the categories that needs improvement going into Year Two for Carbery is the offensive production. While the team made the postseason, they finished last in the Eastern Conference in Goals For with 220. That was a drop of 35 goals that they had from the previous 255 in the 2022-23 campaign. Leading in goals last season was Alex Ovechkin with 31. Following him were Dylan Strome with 27, Tom Wilson with 18, Connor McMichael with 18, and Sonny Milano with 15 (Anthony Mantha had 20 goals before the Capitals traded him to the Vegas Golden Knights). As good as some of these players were, the Capitals barely made it into the postseason.

Scoring continued to be a problem in the series against the Rangers as well. The biggest example of this was Ovechkin, as the Rangers held him without a point in those four games. The leading scorer for Washington during that series was a tie between defenseman Martin Fehervary and Tom Wilson with three points each. The total amount of goals scored were seven and Fehervary was the only player to score multiple goals with two. Seven goals is not enough goals to win a postseason series. The Rangers, meanwhile, tallied 15 goals against the Capitals. Eight of those goals came in the first two games. The offense needed changes this offseason, and former Capitals GM Brian MacLellan went to work. Now, Carbery needs to work the new players MacLellan got into the fold.

Spencer Carbery Working with New Pieces

As mentioned already, the Capitals brought in many new faces into their lineup ahead of the 2024-25 season. The offense that only netted 220 goals last season will potentially receive a boost in production with additions like Andrew Mangiapane, Pierre-Luc Dubois, and Jakob Chychrun (for more scoring on the backend). Logan Thompson, acquired from the Vegas Golden Knights, is paired with Charlie Lindgren as the goalies for the season. They are a tandem that will be called upon to make many key saves every game and be as close to unstoppable as possible. Carbery has important decisions about where these new talents are playing, and with the goalies, who plays which game.