Tom Wilson says Capitals are ‘hungry' and ‘motivated' under new coach Spencer Carbery
Tom Wilson says Capitals are ‘hungry' and ‘motivated' under new coach Spencer Carbery originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
If re-signing Tom Wilson to a seven-year extension is the Capitals' most significant move of the offseason, hiring new head coach Spencer Carbery is a close second.
Carbery, 41, was named Washington's new bench boss on May 31 following a six-week search by the Capitals' brass to replace Peter Laviolette. Carbery, who spent the past two years running Toronto's elite power play unit, previously worked in the Capitals' organization as the head coach for AHL Hershey and ECHL South Carolina.
The 2022-23 season did not end as the Capitals hoped, as the franchise's eight-year playoff streak snapped. Injuries were a large reason for Washington's shortcomings, too, as Wilson, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie and even Alex Ovechkin, by his standards, missed playing time.
A silver lining for a long offseason is extended time for Capitals players to get healthy. Combine that with the addition of Carbery, a new coach filled with motivation, and there's new and fresh enthusiasm entering the 2023-24 campaign.
"There’s an excitement coming into this year that is a little bit different than kind of in years past," Wilson said Monday via Zoom. "There’s a new coaching staff, guys are getting healthy. It was kind of a rocky year last year."
Carbery's time in Hershey allowed him to develop relationships with a handful of current Capitals, highlighted by Martin Fehervary, Alex Alexeyev, Aliaksei Protas and Connor McMichael. He also had a prior relationship with some of Washington's veteran core, largely due to being around for past training camps.
But since taking the head job in Washington, Carbery has reached out to a number of players on the team, per Wilson. The 29-year-old power forward is looking forward to playing under the Capitals' new bench boss.
"Carb seems awesome," Wilson said. "He’s reached out to a lot of the guys, he’s hungry, he’s motivated, he wants to get this back on track. And I think that’s the theme for all of us."
Despite missing the postseason in 2022-23, the Capitals firmly believe they'll be right back in the playoff mix this upcoming season.
"There’s a lot of winners in that room and when you don’t make the playoffs, it’s a failure to what we believe in in our group," Wilson said. "So we’re excited, we’re hungry, we’re excited to get back at it and get this thing moving back in the right direction and show the culture 'what it is to be a Cap.' That’s winning games, that’s playing hard, it’s making it hard for teams to come into our building. We built that for a long time."
Part of Carbery's job, at least initially, will be to balance remaining competitive with an older core with integrating younger players into the lineup. Washington plans to compete for Stanley Cups as long as Ovechkin is in D.C. while he pursues Wayne Gretzky's all-time goals record, and the captain is under contract for three more seasons.
It's a tough task -- general manager Brian MacLellan admitted as such -- but Wilson is confident that Carbery is the right guy to lead this current Capitals' group back into championship contention.
"I believe in this group and we got a lot of great players," Wilson said. "There’s young guys coming up, there’s obviously a great core veteran group and guys are starting to feel better and get a little healthier. With Carbs and the new coaching staff, I think it’ll be exciting. We’re ready to get back to work and get this thing going."
