For Capitals’ John Carlson, extra work yields significant returns
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Version 0 of 1. John Carlson’s Washington Capitals teammates know him for doing USA Today crossword puzzles in pen, for occasionally wearing colorful socks as one of the team’s best dressers and for being a thoughtful friend, quick with invitations to coffee or breakfast. Todd Reirden knew Carlson as one of the Capitals’ steadiest defensemen. He had watched him from the opposite bench, when Reirden was an assistant coach for the Pittsburgh Penguins and Carlson was a young talent for the Capitals. He had always wondered what it would be like to coach him. When Reirden got that opportunity last season, hired onto Coach Barry Trotz’s staff to work primarily with the Capitals’ defensemen, he saw a new side of Carlson. Here was one of the team’s best defensemen asking Reirden whether they could spend 15 minutes before most practices working on individual skills. “Our highest-minute guy was going on the ice to improve his game,” Reirden said. “I think that really sent a great message to the rest of our team about how we needed to improve.” Coming off a season in which he had career highs in goals and assists, Carlson has taken on more responsibility this season, the Capitals’ undisputed top defenseman after the departure of veteran Mike Green in free agency. What overjoys the Capitals is that Carlson, 25, is just entering the prime of his career. “He’s always been good, right?” defenseman Karl Alzner said. “Everyone’s starting to open up their eyes to that. Last year was a breakout season, so with him getting the top minutes on the power play, playing against the top lines, he really gets to showcase what he can do. That’s putting him in the spotlight a little bit more.” Carlson’s not new to the attention. A first-round draft pick in 2008, Carlson has consistently led the team in time on ice since his first full NHL season in 2010-11. But despite the workload, he has proved to be durable, playing in 378 consecutive games through last season (and he hasn’t missed one yet this season). Carlson said he “absolutely” still eats sugar and doesn’t work out 24 hours a day. [Capitals Insider: Caps’ power play is in middle of a slump] There were mornings when Alzner didn’t understand how Carlson had the energy to put on his gear for practice. Carlson has led the team in blocked shots every season since 2010-11, setting a career high with 200 blocked shots last year. But if there was pain from taking pucks to the body, it didn’t prevent Carlson’s extra sessions with Reirden in the mornings. They’d focus on “just little things throughout the game, but who knows at what point or what time or when will these things ever come through?” Carlson said. “I think the more and more you can build those little things into your game, that it just comes second nature. You don’t have to think about making this sort of play or this sort of play.” Reirden said Carlson can naturally cover a lot of ground on the ice with his 6-foot-3, 215-pound frame, but initially, he didn’t use all of the size and stick range to his advantage. Now, he’s able to knock a lot of shots out of play with his stick. Trotz said that in the past, Carlson relied on his instinct and talent and occasionally settled for serviceable over optimal. His 10 points this season are just two shy of the league lead among defensemen. “There’s maturity in his game,” Trotz said. “I think there’s an acceptance of what the demands of a top defenseman are and the details. . . . He’s sort of gotten to that point in his career where he’s a good defenseman that could be one of the great ones for the Caps.” After tallying 12 goals and 43 assists last season — and supplanting Green in the high-man spot on the first power-play unit — Carlson was 10th in votes for the Norris Trophy, which recognizes the league’s top defenseman. He was a staple of a defensive corps whose improvement was largely responsible for the Capitals’ turnaround in Trotz’s first season. [Ovechkin approaches NHL mark for most goals by a Russian player] Under Reirden, the team went from allowing 33.5 shots against per game in the 2013-14 season to 28.9 last season. Through 10 games this season, the Capitals average the fewest shots allowed in the NHL with 25.1. But for all of the improvements Carlson made, his willingness to invest even more time stayed with Reirden. When Carlson had his exit meeting with coaches at the end of last season, they told him they expected him to take on a greater leadership role this season, something they thought he had done naturally through example. In a preseason game at Boston, Carlson served as an alternate captain. He welcomed the role, though his teammates described him as “low-profile,” balancing a smart-aleck sense of humor with a friendly demeanor. But as much as Carlson enjoys staying out of the spotlight, he knows that will be harder to do if he keeps progressing like he wants to. He regularly gets asked for autographs or photos in the Washington area, where he lives year-round with his wife, Gina, and their son, who was born in June. Rather than leave town in the offseason, Carlson wants a stable, long-term base; the Capitals want that, too. “This is home for me,” Carlson said. “I like putting my roots down in D.C.” |