The Washington Capitals officially introduced Spencer Carbery as their next head coach Thursday morning in Washington. Carbery was announced as the 20th head coach in Capitals franchise history on May 30.
Carbery, his wife Casey, son Hudson and daughter Vivian, arrived at District E, a state-of-the-art gaming and hospitality space located in Gallery Place, directly adjacent to Capital One Arena, around 10AM this morning. Their entrance to District E was lined by Capitals faithful, welcoming them to Washington.
A warm welcome for the Carbery Family! pic.twitter.com/TfBgmp0HOc
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) June 1, 2023
Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan joined Carbery for the initial introductions. MacLellan said Carbery “came out on top from Day 1. We feel we’ve signed one of the best young coaches in the game.”
MacLellan added, “The main reason we’re here today and hired Spencer is a high level of trust and comfort for both parties.” MacLellan said that the team talked to other potential candidates, as did Carbery with other teams, but ultimately landed with the guy they wanted all along.
MacLellan told NBC Sports Washington, “He has a reputation of getting guys to play the right way and holding them accountable and he does a good job system wise, so he checks a lot of boxes off as a head coach.”
Carbery then fielded questions from the media for the better part of a half hour. He began by speaking about the process leading up to the Capitals announcement on May 30.
“This has always felt right for me…as I went through it, everything kept drawing me to this organization,” said Carbery. “In the back on my mind I had always felt like this organization just felt so much like home to me.” Carbery added, “I’ve always had a connection to this organization and this team.”
Carbery was asked about taking over as head coach with Alex Ovechkin chasing Wayne Gretzky’s record: “My job as a head coach is to put him in situations to be successful.” He called it a “huge responsibility.”
We will have much more on Carbery, his introductory presser and his first day on the job coming up later today.
By Jon Sorensen
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