The Eastern Conference leaders are okay with having no players headed to the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off, given the opportunity to rest for the stretch run.
Only two NHL teams don’t have any players participating in the 4 Nations Face-Off, the league’s upcoming international tournament featuring the United States, Canada, Sweden and Finland.
One of those teams, the San Jose Sharks, enters the league’s break for the tournament in last place in the NHL standings. The other is the Washington Capitals, who lead the Eastern Conference with 79 points and are two points behind the Winnipeg Jets for most in the league going into their final game before the break, a Sunday afternoon matchup with the Utah Hockey Club at Capital One Arena.
The Capitals have known since early December, when the tournament’s initial rosters were revealed, that none of their players had gotten the call for their country. But even as a pileup of injuries over the past several weeks prompted multiple replacements to be named, Washington players remained on the outside looking in.
“I’m sure a lot of guys would like to be there,” defenseman John Carlson said Saturday. “Myself included.”
Carlson (United States), goaltender Logan Thompson (Canada) and winger Tom Wilson (Canada) were widely projected to be in the mix for their countries. But when the rosters were revealed, none was included.
“I would’ve been a little bit more upset, I think, if they called me and then said I didn’t make the team,” Thompson told The Washington Post recently. “To know that I wasn’t really on their radar and still not on their radar, that’s fine. That doesn’t bother me. My focus is here with Washington.”
Having no players in the tournament affords the Capitals a luxury not shared by the other teams in the playoff mix: Their entire roster will get a nine-day break to rest and recharge. Washington will return to practice Feb. 19, before games resume across the NHL on Feb. 22. The Capitals return with a road game against Pittsburgh that afternoon followed by a home game against Edmonton the next day.
“You can look at it both ways. I think a few guys on our team deserved to be there for sure, but at the end of the day, they aren’t there,” center Dylan Strome said. “Just use it our advantage. Get the rest you need and be ready to come back for the last 27 games.”
Before the Capitals get to the extended break, they have one more game to play. Afternoon games typically have Washington Coach Spencer Carbery particularly attuned to his team’s preparation and mental readiness, and a midday puck drop before a lengthy break only magnifies the usual concerns.
“It is challenging,” Carbery said. “The afternoon game provides another challenge because you don’t have your game-day routine of pregame skate, meetings. We’ll do our best as a staff to make sure that their minds are present and we’re focused. We’re trying to finish this thing the right way.”
Carbery has spoken throughout the season of breaking the campaign into three segments: from the beginning of the season to the Christmas break, from after the Christmas break to the 4 Nations tournament, and then from after that break to the playoffs. When Washington returns to face the Penguins, it will have 27 regular season games remaining — and hopes of a lengthy playoff run still ahead.
In a normal season, the all-star break would result in just four or five days away from the rink. The length of this break will be welcomed by Carbery and his players as they keep an eye on what’s to come.
“We’ve done a lot of good things in this portion, and now this will set us up to completely get away from the game of hockey,” he said. “Get away from the NHL. Get away from everything that has to do with the pressures, the preparation. I really want our guys to utilize this break and just get away from it all for nine days and reset mentally and physically. Be able to come back as refreshed as possible and energized and ready for this final stretch.”
“A mental break is enormous for us at this point in the year,” Carlson said. “Guys that are a little banged up and injured, it’ll help them, too. But mostly the way I look at it is just the mental — kind of get away from the day-to-day stuff and come back reenergized and invigorated to finish the year strong.”
By late afternoon Sunday, the Capitals will be done with the middle third of their schedule, ready to escape hockey for nearly two weeks before they refocus and get back on the ice. Carbery expects them to stay “dialed in,” as he put it, until the game against Utah is over.
“I think it’s going to be important to just continue to do what we’ve been doing,” Strome said. “Obviously, [we] put ourselves in a great spot to get home ice in the playoffs. … Every game has been competitive, and we’ve found ways to come back and get points. We know from last year that each point adds up and how important they are. [Our goals are] finishing the rest of the season and not taking our foot off the gas.”
