Carlson still shaking off ‘rust’ five games since return originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington
WASHINGTON — Despite totaling five points in five games since making his return from a frightening head injury, Capitals defenseman John Carlson reported still experiencing some rust in his game after Sunday’s 5-2 loss to the New York Rangers.
“Probably how I expected,” Carlson said of how he felt physically. “I think there’s rust, there’s nothing you can do to compare it to live play and you’re definitely going to work through that and that’s something I am…It hasn’t been the most seamless but I feel pretty good.”
Carlson, 33, missed three months after taking a slap shot to the side of the head in a game against the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 23. He suffered a small skull fracture and severed temporal artery from the blow, knocking him out for the longest extended absence of his career. With only five games remaining on the Capitals’ schedule, Carlson will appear in the fewest games of any season since playing 22 as a rookie in 2009-10.
The Capitals have been plenty familiar with the effects of rust this season. Right wing Tom Wilson and center Nicklas Backstrom both missed their first 42 games after undergoing offseason ACL and hip resurfacing surgeries, respectively. It proved to be difficult for each of them to rev up without going through a training camp or preseason.
“I think it’s expected for any of those guys that missed a lot of games,” head coach Peter Laviolette said in his postgame press conference. “They’re always working to get up to game speed, so I think that always factors into it a little bit.”
Wilson put up just three points in his first eight games before another lower-body injury forced him back to the shelf for a couple more weeks. Backstrom has struggled to regain his form of years past, posting a 0.53 points-per-game average that’s on pace for the lowest of any season in his NHL career.
Carlson’s assessment of his game was a tad modest. The team has been significantly better when he’s on the ice. According to Natural Stat Trick, Carlson has a Corsi For percentage of 51.89% and 5.99 expected goals over his last five games, both highest among Capitals defensemen over that span. He’s also been their most productive power-play scorer with three points on the man advantage.
With their playoff odds down to fractions of a percent, the Capitals’ sights have started to turn ahead to next season. Expecting to have players such as Carlson, Wilson and Backstrom going through a normal offseason before they go through camp as full participants, the Capitals can hope that rust doesn’t come into play as much in 2023-24.