Spencer Carbery et l’appel téléphonique de Caroline du Sud qui a changé sa vie

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1. washingtonpost 11 mois ago

   **From** [**Bailey Johnson**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/bailey-johnson/?itid=ai_top_johnsonb2)**:**

   Five days before Christmas in 2008, Spencer Carbery thought his hockey career was over.

   Without warning, the Fresno Falcons — Carbery’s team in the ECHL, a minor league two tiers below the NHL — folded, effective immediately. Carbery and his teammates were in the locker room preparing for a game when they learned the news from their coach, Matt Thomas.

   “Guys, tonight is our last game,” Thomas told his stunned audience.

   The Falcons won that night, and then Carbery went home to talk to his then-fiancée, Casey, and figure out their next steps.

   At 27, after bouncing around the lower rungs of pro hockey for two-plus years, Carbery figured Fresno’s collapse was a sign. The couple decided to move to South Carolina, where Carbery’s mother lived. He planned to get a job in finance, using the business administration degree he earned at St. Norbert College (Wis.).

   Teams across the ECHL reached out to Carbery as the news spread, but he thanked each caller for the interest and told them he was ready to move on.

   Except for Jared Bednar.

   At first, Carbery gave Bednar — who was the coach of the South Carolina Stingrays, the Washington Capitals’ ECHL affiliate — the same message he told the other teams. But Bednar, now the coach of the Colorado Avalanche, didn’t back down.

   “You’re already coming out this way,” Bednar said to Carbery. “Why don’t you give it a try with the Stingrays, just for a couple of weeks?”

   Carbery agreed to see how things went. The only catch was that Bednar needed him to meet up with the Stingrays in 48 hours — 2,600 miles across the country. The couple hopped in Casey’s Chrysler Sebring and hit the road.

   “We got in on a Tuesday night,” Carbery said. “I went on the ice with Bedsy and his son Kruz, just got a skate because I hadn’t skated in a week. He was like, ‘You’ll play tomorrow.’ And then the rest was history.”

   Carbery quickly became a key piece of the Stingrays’ lineup. His leadership qualities were evident from the beginning, and he made an instant impact as a player always willing to stand up for his teammates. Six months after Carbery’s abrupt arrival in South Carolina, the Stingrays lifted the Kelly Cup as ECHL champions.

   And his rise continued. Carbery became the Stingrays’ assistant coach a year later. A year after that, he was the head coach. And 12 years after that, with a handful of other stops in between, Carbery, now 41, was named coach of the Capitals.

   **Read more about Carbery here, and skip the paywall with email registration:**[**https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/10/12/spencer-carbery-coaching-history-washington-capitals/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/10/12/spencer-carbery-coaching-history-washington-capitals/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)