The Washington Capitals looked very different at practice on Friday morning. After a spell of bad five-on-five play, head coach Spencer Carbery threw his lines and pairings into a blender, attempting to find consistency at the start of the 2025 portion of this season’s schedule.
Carbery’s biggest change was moving Connor McMichael back to his natural center position on the team’s third line. McMichael has had a career-best start to the season — 30 points (16g, 14a) in 38 games — playing as a wing in the top six.
“We’ve held off [on moving McMichael to center] for 38 games,” Carbery said Friday. “Just felt like the timing was now for him to start to get some reps. We’ve always known that Mikey’s a natural centerman and has played there his whole life. We utilized him [on the wing] at the beginning of the year, and he had a phenomenal start to the year. Even with that start, we always figured eventually, he would make his way back into the middle of the ice.
“The time is now for us to try and shake our group up a little bit, try to get a little bit of speed down the middle of the rink, try to get him going a little bit and get the puck in his hands a little bit more and him utilizing his speed, 200-foot game. So, we’ll see how that looks.
McMichael has lined up down the middle for Washington in the past, primarily playing the position last year when he recorded 33 points (18g, 15a) in 80 games. Carbery last had the 23-year-old at center for one game during the 2024 preseason between Jakub Vrana and Ethen Frank.
After Hendrix Lapierre struggled to lock down the third-line spot earlier this season, general manager Chris Patrick acquired Lars Eller from the Pittsburgh Penguins. Eller’s arrival was meant to stabilize the bottom six, but he has struggled to adjust back to DC. He recorded just one point in December and recently missed four games due to illness.
Although McMichael is moving to center, Eller isn’t leaving Washington’s lineup; he’s sliding to the left wing. Carbery hopes the move will relieve some pressure on the veteran Dane.
“It’s been a hard transition for Lars with the trade, family, and moving over to the new team. His role is different here than it was in Pittsburgh, and then he gets sick, and it’s just one thing after the other,” Carbery said. “The line and the lack of chemistry on that line, having to help Lappy, and all these different factors I take into account. I think maybe this will give him a little opportunity to just get his feet under him, give him a different line combination, let Mikey carry a lot of the responsibilities in the middle of the ice.
“I feel like that’s hopefully a good combination of two guys that are natural centermen but can easily transition to the wing in any situation on the ice in a game. So, we’ll see how that looks. Hopefully, that gets Lars going a bit.”
Washington’s third line has struggled overall, no matter who Carbery has chosen to play at its center. The second-year bench boss has used several players on the line throughout the first 38 games, and none of those combinations have clicked.
The hope will be that McMichael, with his newfound confidence this year, can push the trio forward.
“That’s the goal, too,” Carbery said. “Everything we’ve done on that third line just hasn’t worked. I’ll be very blunt. It has not worked, and we’ve tried different combinations, we’ve tried different wingers, we’ve moved some centermen in and out, and everything we’ve tried there, we just have not found stability on that line this year. We’re going to try something different until we find something that can give us some reliable minutes consistently.”
Carbery will get his first look at the line, including Jakub Vrana on the right wing, against the New York Rangers on Saturday afternoon.
