Canucks face Caps as Connolly off to best start of his career
Washington Capitals winger from Prince George off to impressive start this season
Brett Connolly has his name inscribed on the Stanley Cup. He’s also off to the best start of his NHL career.
Maybe these two significant things are connected?
The 26-year-old Washington Capitals winger from Prince George went into Monday’s game against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena with one goal and five assists through seven games. That’s 0.86 points per game.
Connolly put up points at a 0.32 rate in league play in his first seven years in the NHL, including recording 15 goals and 27 points in 70 regular-season games last season with the Capitals.
He had six goals and nine points in Washington’s 24 playoff encounters last spring, including a pair of goals in their five-game triumph over the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final.
“Scoring chances are up. I’ve had a lot more looks this year early in the season compared to the last couple of years,” Connolly, a 6-3, 195pound right-handed winger said of his hot start.
“That’s what I wanted coming in. I wanted to have more chances, have more shots, get into scoring areas more. I feel good about my game. I’m very confident.”
Connolly was averaging 14:55 a game of ice time going into Monday’s action. That’s up from the 12 minutes he averaged last year in the regular season and the 11:48 he had in the playoffs.
There’s an argument he’s getting an extra shot with Washington missing winger Tom Wilson because of a 20-game suspension he received for a hit to the head on St. Louis Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist in the pre-season. Wilson averaged 15:59 of ice time a night in the regular season last year.
There’s also an argument that Connolly is simply due. Born in Campbell River and raised in Prince George, he’s been a name to know since he was a teenager.
He played in the WHL for his hometown Prince George Cougars and in 2008-09 he became the first 16-year-old to score 30 goals in a season since Patrick Marleau did it in 1995-96.
The City of Prince George celebrated Brett Connolly Day the following September.
He was picked sixth overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, despite hip injuries having limited him to 16 games with the Cougars that season.
Things never worked out with the Lightning, or the Boston Bruins, before Connolly landed in Washington. He’s in his third season with the Capitals, finishing up the second year of a two-year deal with a US$1.5 million cap hit.
He’s slated to become an unrestricted free agent in the off-season, which makes his start and where it goes all the more compelling.
“It was never easy,” said Connolly, who debuted with Tampa Bay as a 19-year-old in 2011-12. “It’s been an interesting career, for sure ...
“For certain guys it works out in the first place. For whatever reason, it didn’t for me. I feel that I’ve had to get better as my career has gone on and I’ve had to work at some things on and off the ice. It wasn’t easy early.
“Maybe I came into the league a little too young. We’ll never know. That’s life. You have to deal with things. I’m happy where I am now. I’ve had to work really hard. There’s a lot of tough days, a lot of looking into the mirror and self-reflecting. You just have to stick with it.
“I’m very fortunate that I could come here, to a team where they let you be yourself. We have a great group in here. You’re allowed to be yourself and let your personality show and be confident and comfortable. I think it’s a good spot for guys who want to come and reinvent themselves.”
The Capitals have long been one of the league’s benchmark teams. It’s easy to imagine opponents being extra inspired to face Alexander Ovechkin. Connolly balked at the idea there might be more pressure on the team this year.
“I don’t think guys feel that,” he said. “The mindset is the same. We’re playing, having fun, trying to get better every day. I think everybody is pushing everybody to be better.
“There’s no pressure on us to repeat. We know we have the group to do it, because we have pretty much the same group, but every year is different. Teams get better. Teams improve. Players get better. It’s a hard trophy to win. You have to be playing the right hockey at the right time of year and we’re working toward that.
“We’ve played well in certain games, we’ve played not so well in other games. We’re still trying to find our game a little bit more. We know we have another level.”