Goofball energy helped fuel the Caps. How far can it take them now?

Washington Post

21-04-2025

Six months ago, before they had any idea where they would end up at the end of the regular season or how good of a team they were going to be, the Washington Capitals spent four days in Columbus, Ohio.
A quirk of their preseason left them with a large gap in their schedule, so Coach Spencer Carbery decided they would stick around in Ohio for a few days. The Capitals did the usual training camp work of practices and film sessions, but they also went golfing as a team, toured Ohio State's football facilities and took full advantage of their time away as a group.
'This group is as close as I've ever been a part of,' winger Brandon Duhaime said Saturday as Washington prepared to open the Stanley Cup playoffs against the Montreal Canadiens. That closeness started all the way back in Columbus.
Duhaime is one of seven players who landed in Washington amid an offseason overhaul last summer. Fellow forwards Pierre-Luc Dubois, Andrew Mangiapane and Taylor Raddysh; defensemen Jakob Chychrun and Matt Roy; and goaltender Logan Thompson helped reshape the Capitals, transforming them from the team that was swept out of the playoffs last season to the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. But back in the fall, they were all new and trying to find their place.
That trip to Columbus helped set the tone and gave everyone time to get to know one another.
'The chemistry was pretty instant, right when camp started and the weeks leading up to it,' Duhaime said. 'It was awesome. Just a super welcoming group, and I think that's where that chemistry kind of jelled.'
Washington's dressing room has been a jovial, almost chaotic place for most of the season, and Duhaime is nearly always at the center of the action. As a committed prankster — though Thompson and winger Tom Wilson are known to get involved, too — and the reason the Capitals bark like dogs at one another, Duhaime has a personality that has shone in Washington.
'It's just been a really fun year. That first week of the year, bringing Dewey and all these characters in, I'm like: 'Oh, it's going to be a long year. They're going to be all over me,'' Wilson said in mid-March. 'But it makes it fun coming to the rink. I think you can see that with our group. Everyone has a lot of fun. It makes you want to come to the rink and keep playing and play hard for each other.'
Dubois, who found his home in Washington after arriving from Los Angeles as a distressed asset, credited Carbery's encouragement to just be himself for his on-ice turnaround. Off the ice, the Capitals also encourage one another to be themselves and bring their whole personalities to the team.
The results are typically boisterous, but at the core they are a reflection of the genuine affection shared across the dressing room.
'We have just a really good group of guys, and it's a really fun group of guys. It makes coming to the rink every day a really good time,' goaltender Charlie Lindgren said. 'Usually our days are filled with hard work and a lot of laughs. When it's fun to come to the rink — it's a long season, as we all know, 82 games, and it can get monotonous at times, but it doesn't seem to be that way with this group because it's that much fun.'
Lindgren pointed to another early-season moment, his own goal at Tampa Bay in late November, as a connection point. Lindgren backhanded the puck into his own net to give the Lightning a third-period lead, but instead of folding or pointing fingers at Lindgren, the Capitals rallied to win.
'John Carlson felt like he took the bull by the horns and scored a big goal to tie it up, and then we end up winning that hockey game,' Lindgren said. 'Just little things like that show the character of the group. It's made for a lot of success.'
There's no doubt that having success makes it easier to have a lighthearted, tight-knit team, but Washington is equally insistent that its chemistry as a team has fueled its success.
'I think that's part of your culture, creating that family atmosphere where guys care about one another and they love each other and they want to make the right play, right decision, win that puck battle for one another,' Carbery said. 'Is it the be-all, end-all? No. There's some close teams that don't win a lot. But I think it's an important part.
'It's an important part of a winning team, that ingredient of having that cohesiveness and a team that cares about one another. That's right at the top of the list of positive qualities of our group.'
'We're a type of group that we're never going to give up on each other,' Lindgren said. 'We're always going to keep on working to find a way. It's just been a really, really fun year. Now we're all excited to get to the fun part of the season.'
As the Capitals get ready for their first-round series against Montreal, they're firm believers that their closeness — which players up and down the lineup say is unique to this group — will be a factor in their quest to win a playoff series for the first time since they lifted the Stanley Cup in 2018.
'Especially when it gets to playoff hockey, having a really tight-knit group, a group that's going to stick together through the hard times,' Lindgren said. 'Playoff hockey is hard. There's going to be times, obviously, where maybe we get down in a game, get down in a series, and we've got to pick each other up and keep on fighting to live another day. Playoff hockey usually brings out the best in people. I feel like the beauty of this team is we rely on the team.'
'We've had a lot of fun this year. This group is pretty special,' Dubois said. 'This series, it's something we've been waiting for a long time. We've had it in the back of our minds. … It's the most fun part of the season. We're going to be ready for it.'