{"id":221952,"date":"2025-10-13T16:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T16:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/221952\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T16:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T16:54:07","slug":"how-spencer-carbery-approaches-hockey-statistics-the-eye-test-and-the-capitals-analytics-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/221952\/","title":{"rendered":"How Spencer Carbery approaches hockey statistics, the \u2018eye test,\u2019 and the Capitals\u2019 analytics staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spencer Carbery is one of the brightest minds in hockey. The reigning NHL Coach of the Year is in his third season at the helm of the Washington Capitals, looking to improve on last spring\u2019s second-round playoff exit.<\/p>\n

To do so, Carbery seeks to identify any advantage he can to make the Capitals better, and part of that process involves stats. During a recent appearance on ESPN\u2019s The Drop podcast<\/a> with Greg Wyshynski and Arda Ocal, Carbery discussed how much he weighs statistics versus the more traditional and subjective \u201ceye test.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to say 75 percent eyeball, 25 percent numbers,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cI\u2019ll say this. Usually, more times than not, it matches up. When it doesn\u2019t, and they send you a number that you\u2019re like, \u2018Whoa. I did not think we were so bad in that underlying number or that measurement.\u2019 And then you go back, start to watch it, and you go, \u2018Oh, okay.\u2019 Usually, the numbers are right. Shocker. They don\u2019t lie to you.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s really helpful because, as coaches, sometimes you can get tunnel vision and your staff gets tunnel vision. You think of a player or a certain thing that you do like, \u2018Nope, it\u2019s good. It\u2019s good. This is how we\u2019ve always done it.\u2019 And then someone brings you an analytical number and you start to look at it and you go, \u2018Oh, okay. I see what they\u2019re talking about.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Carbery elaborated on his communication with the Capitals\u2019 analytics staff, how he then approaches the stats they provide, and how he translates the math into, hopefully, more on-ice success for the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually, our analytics team will tell us, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re doing this really well, or you\u2019re doing this poorly.\u2019 And you\u2019ll look at it and you go, \u2018Yep, that makes sense. I would agree with that,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cBut there\u2019ll be some that you go, \u2018Geez, I thought we were really good at that.\u2019 And we\u2019re not. For instance, we give up the third most odd-man rushes in the NHL. Your eyeball should tell you that. In a game you\u2019re watching, you\u2019re like, \u2018Geez, we\u2019ve given up a lot of odd-man rushes.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cBut sometimes you\u2019d be like, \u2018I don\u2019t feel that way. The third most odd-man rushes? What are we doing wrong?\u2019 And then you start to dive into it and you go, \u2018Geez, I see what they\u2019re saying.\u2019 And then it\u2019s on us as coaches not to be stubborn. Not go, \u2018Nope, I\u2019m set in my ways. We do what we do. Leave us alone,\u2019 because now you\u2019re going to fall short if you\u2019re trying to get better in a bunch of different areas.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

When speaking to reporters at training camp, Carbery cited the team\u2019s power-play faceoffs as another example of how he utilizes the club\u2019s analytics department.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow I will say this, which I was super bummed about. I got our analytics team to do a deep dive into the significance of a power-play faceoff. How many goals does it equate to a year? It was actually pretty minimal,\u201d Carbery said then. \u201cI was like, \u2018Damn. Maybe that\u2019s the thing that the numbers can\u2019t measure.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a player, you\u2019re getting ready for a power play \u2014 a big moment in a game. It\u2019s 1-1 in the third period, and you lose that draw. But what the numbers can\u2019t measure is the mental part of that. I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh, man, now we\u2019ve got to go break out.\u2019 Maybe there\u2019s more than the numbers tell you, but if you dive into it, it\u2019s not as significant as you would think.\u201d<\/p>\n

The discussion about faceoffs arose after Carbery and the rest of the Capitals\u2019 top brass brought in former NHL center Zenon Konopka as a skills coach during camp<\/a>. Konopka, who played 346 career games with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks, Columbus Blue Jackets, Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Islanders, Ottawa Senators, Minnesota Wild, and Buffalo Sabres, was one of the best faceoff men in the history of the league.<\/p>\n

While he was perhaps more known for dropping his gloves, the Ontario native\u2019s career faceoff percentage of 59.33 percent ranks second in NHL history among players with 500 or more faceoffs, behind only Yanic Perreault. Konopka came to Capitals camp after the team finished the 2024-25 season with middling results in the dot, ranking 16th of the 32 teams in faceoff win percentage (50.2%).<\/p>\n

Dylan Strome (53.7%) is the only returning regular center who finished with more than a 50 percent win rate last season, joining Nic Dowd (49.9%), Pierre-Luc Dubois (49.7%), and Hendrix Lapierre (39.6%) as the main men down the middle this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have veteran centermen for the most part, like Dylan Strome, Nic Dowd, and Dubie,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cThose three guys are extremely in tune with faceoffs and what goes into that, and the opposition and the cat and mouse. They\u2019re students of the game, so they really, truly care about their faceoffs. It is a big part of all three of their games.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, this was a way for guys who are searching for better ways to do things, more information, different ideas, different tactics, for us to bring someone into the organization to maybe help show some of that. \u2018Here\u2019s some ways you can tactically combat if a player does this, you can do this. Have you ever thought about doing this?\u2019 So, those guys are thirsty for that information and trying to get better in that area. All three of those guys are really good faceoff guys, but it\u2019s just trying to stay ahead of the curve and get better in that area.\u201d<\/p>\n

On top of his world-class communication ability, Carbery\u2019s use of creative solutions to improve his team and his active implementation of analytics in his coaching will likely make the Capitals a force in the league for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n

The Capitals made a 20-point improvement in the standings from Carbery\u2019s first year at the helm of the club last year. They went from the last team to qualify for the NHL\u2019s postseason during the 2023-24 campaign to the first team to do so during the 2024-25 season after claiming the top spot in the Eastern Conference with a 51-22-9 record.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spencer Carbery is one of the brightest minds in hockey. The reigning NHL Coach of the Year is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221953,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-221952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}