{"id":309644,"date":"2025-11-23T21:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-23T21:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/309644\/"},"modified":"2025-11-23T21:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-23T21:43:07","slug":"capitals-make-personnel-changes-to-power-play-after-brutal-0-for-6-effort-against-lightning-when-it-repeatedly-isnt-going-well-we-need-to-make-adjustments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/309644\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitals make personnel changes to power play after brutal 0-for-6 effort against Lightning: \u2018When it repeatedly isn\u2019t going well, we need to make adjustments\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Spencer Carbery\u2019s patience with the Capitals\u2019 power play<\/a> has run out.<\/p>\n

At Sunday\u2019s Capitals practice, the head coach made several personnel changes to the team\u2019s two units ahead of Monday night\u2019s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n

The changes come after the \u201cnot even close to good enough\u201d power play went 0-for-6<\/a>, including a failure on an extended 5-on-3 advantage, in a 5-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night. Heading into Sunday\u2019s NHL games, the Capitals are operating at just 14.7 percent effectiveness while a man up this season, the sixth-worst rate in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just think it\u2019s gotten to a point where \u2014 I talked about it maybe a week ago \u2014 you want to be patient with, whether it\u2019s line combinations, power play combinations, D pairs, give it time to see what it can become, and chemistry to be created,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cSo the majority of the time, that comes with some growing pains.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then it gets to a certain point where, as a coach, I need to make a decision of what makes sense for our hockey team. When it repeatedly isn\u2019t going well, then we need to make adjustments and find ways to improve it. One of the ways you can do that is by changing the personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Capitals power-play units at 11\/23 practice<\/p>\n

PP1: Jakob Chychrun, Alex Ovechkin, Justin Sourdif, Ryan Leonard, Dylan Strome<\/p>\n

PP2: John Carlson, Sonny Milano, Ethen Frank, Anthony Beauvillier, Hendrix Lapierre<\/p>\n

Tom Wilson and Connor McMichael did not practice, as they took the day off for maintenance<\/a>. Wilson will likely take Sourdif\u2019s spot on the top unit, while McMichael could take the place of one of the forwards on the second unit.<\/p>\n

The most notable difference from the power play that the Capitals unsuccessfully sent out against the Lightning is that Chychrun and Carlson quarterbacked separate units at practice. Previously, Carlson was at the point of the top unit, while Chychrun, a defenseman, was often playing down low in front of the opposition\u2019s goaltender \u2014 usually a spot reserved for a forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, Chych\u2019s a defenseman, right? So his entire career, he\u2019s usually played somewhere up top on a power play,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cSo when he\u2019s finding himself in a lot of scenarios down by the net, down on the goal line, as good a player as he is, it\u2019s still uncomfortable \u2013 it\u2019s not like he\u2019s played there his whole life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think just getting both those guys running their own unit, having two balanced units that we can go to, and then also it\u2019s about the accountability and riding the hot hands. If one looks great, [it\u2019ll] probably start the next one, and then they start the next one, and then they start the next one. If it doesn\u2019t look great, start the other unit. See if there\u2019s some chemistry there or [if] they\u2019ve got some jump that night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ovechkin, the all-time NHL leader in power-play goals (327), took reps with both units, swapping in and out for Milano on the second. Carbery was asked again on Sunday whether his plans surrounding double-shifting Ovechkin<\/a> have changed. The Caps captain has just one power-play goal this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019ll be a TBD,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cJust given situation, how the power plays are going. Has he gone up and down the ice? Has he just come off a shift where he\u2019s going right onto a power play? All those things I take into consideration when considering whether he stays. Is there a stoppage in between where you can get a little bit of a breather? Is he going two minutes straight through? Those are the things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The primary emphasis from Carbery seems to be on better dispersing the team\u2019s speed across the two units. According to NHL Edge, the Capitals spend just 53.2 percent of their power-play time in the offensive zone, which is the worst rate in the league.<\/p>\n

Spreading the speed in the team\u2019s lineup will likely make zone entries easier, letting the team get set up for more of the two minutes. The Capitals are also rumored to be exploring the trade market<\/a> to add additional speed to their roster.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no doubt, skating is one of our Achilles heels as a team,\u201d Carbery said. \u201cIt shows up on the power play. It\u2019s not the end of the world, but to incorporate guys that can add the skating, the speed, the pace off the entry, and then also for puck recoveries of getting out of tight spaces, an ability to be able to skate, cut back, accelerate away from defenders \u2014 usually long, big defenders on the penalty kill \u2014 is definitely something that helps.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Capitals will see the first test of their new setups against the Blue Jackets, who own the 27th-ranked penalty kill in the league. However, Columbus is also one of the most disciplined teams in the league, spending the fourth-least amount of time shorthanded per game (4:08).<\/p>\n

In the two teams\u2019 first matchup this season on October 24, the Capitals went 2-for-5 on the power play in a 5-1 win. They have scored more than one power-play goal in just one other game since then, their 8-4 beatdown of the Montreal Canadiens this past Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spencer Carbery\u2019s patience with the Capitals\u2019 power play has run out. At Sunday\u2019s Capitals practice, the head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284642,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-309644","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309644","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=309644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}