The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Chris Patrick - General Manager of the Washington Capitals

Episode Date: March 4, 2025

Chris Patrick of the Washington Capitals joins Jeff Marek to discuss his recent signing of Charlie Lindgren, Alex Ovechkin's chase of Gretzky, the season they're having, and how the Capitals may approach the deadlineShout out to our sponsors!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Tim Hortons: https://www.timhortons.ca/rollupReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Flames_Nation🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoff Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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as well. Learn more at phys.ca. Switch to Fizz. Chris Patrick joins me now on the Sheik. Chris, thanks so much for stopping by today and thanks for starting the news cycle off for all of us in hockey media today. So on behalf of everybody, thank you. Hey, we're always looking to help you guys out, right? for all of us in hockey media today. So on behalf of everybody, thank you. Hey, we're always looking to help you guys out, right? Well, okay, so let me start with this. I was wondering before you came on, are you a lefty by any chance?

Do you like throw with your left hand? Are you a right catch guy? Because you're getting the market cornered on right catch goaltenders here and locking them up longterm. Are you a southpaw by any chance? I'm not. Yeah, I'm already. Yeah. Okay. I guess I just really like right catching goalies. You know, one of the things that, it's funny, I was having a conversation with this. Actually, this goes back a number of years to like,

you know, the blue jackets when they had who would have been Mason and Garon I remember talking to someone in Columbus who said, you know Some of the shooters have complained about it that you know, we're shooting we're shooting on on right catch goaltenders here But whenever we play we're playing against traditional goaltenders that that that they catch with their left hand Has that ever been an issue with the Washington Capitals? Have any shooters ever, any players ever said like, eh, can you mix in a different goal tender or someone else for practice so we can not just acclimatize ourselves to right catch guys?

Yeah, the coaches haven't talked about that. I haven't heard it and I haven't heard it through them. If that's been something the players have talked about that. I haven't heard it and I haven't heard it through them. If that's been something the players have have talked about. You know, we do have the good fortune of having a video coach who also doubles as a third goalie for us at times. And he's a he's a left catching goalie. So so I'm sure the guys enjoy when he comes in. One, they get to take free shots at Brett, but also they got a guy that has the glove

on the other side to get some shots on as well. Isn't Brett like six foot six as well? Like he's a large man too, isn't he? He's all a six foot six. I think he's more six, seven. Yeah. Okay, so the goal situation, I do want to get to trade deadline

and it's impossible for someone like me to have you on and not at least spend a little bit of time on your family, the first family of hockey, as I've always called the Patrick's, but trade deadline is here. We're seeing moves already, a blockbuster on Saturday with the Panthers and the Chicago Blackhawks, but we wonder about your Washington Capitals and how sensitive are you to disrupting the chemistry

that's already been established here with this team? Like are you going into deadline thinking, I don't know if this is gonna be trade deadline for us as much as this is gonna be tweak deadline for us, we've already made some moves, everything's going so well that you don't wanna budge this thing too much, an inch to the right or an inch to the left. How are you approaching deadline? Yeah, I think that's a great way to put it, tweak deadline. You know, I think that's the balance for us is, you know, we've had a really, really good group

with chemistry both on the ice and off the ice. So, you know, you want to look for ways to improve the team, but you know, you just also have to be careful about doing too much and over tinkering. And like I said the other day, making a deal for the sake of making a deal. I think just as important as adding maybe a piece that helps the team here is our own guys within the room, understanding that we're in early March here, we're obviously in a good spot.

We put ourselves in a good spot, but there's a long way to go here between now and when everything's done and we have to improve our game. We're starting to see teams come in here that are fighting tooth and nail every day for their playoff lives. And we've got to start making sure we're matching their intensity because come game one of the playoffs, we have to, we can't just hope that we're going to turn it on.

We have to be ready to go and have built, been building our game to that point. So, um, so I think that's an important piece as well, but, but for sure, the, the chemistry of this group has been really strong all year. And I think a big, big part of the reason why we've, we've had so much success. So everything we're gonna do is gonna have that in mind.

Is there a, Chris, is there a part of you that says, I've heard this before from managers as well, this team has done so well, they've jumped over every hurdle we've put in front of them, I owe them something. Do you have that sort of internal pressure on yourself, like, these guys have done everything I asked, like, look where we are in the standing, look where we are in the division, in the conference, in the league, I owe them something. Do you feel like you owe this team something? I mean, I understand that sentiment. I mean, I think you just have to, you know, you hope the players understand like you're doing the work and you're evaluating everything that's out there. And, and, you know, it's not like I'm just sitting back and say, Hey, teams

in a good spot. I can take this week off. I don't need to make calls. Like you're doing that work, but you also are evaluating, you know, what you're hearing with what's the price that you have to pay to make that move. Is that the right thing for the, for the franchise at this point in time? And, and again, like, you know, for a guy that's been laying it all on the line for, you know, the first 60 games of this season, is it fair to now tell him, okay, you're sitting out for this new guy coming in, um, because we feel like this is the right thing for our team and team and you have to weigh that factor as

well. So hopefully they understand that that's where we're coming from. And again, if we think there's something that makes a lot of sense to improve the team, we'll do it. We won't hesitate to do it, but we just want to be careful. We're making the right move both for now and for the future. Does it feel like, and I know this is your first deadline in the big chair, but I mean, you've been around deadline for a long time here. I don't even know if this is a fair question, but I'll try anyway.

Does it feel like prices are really high this year? That's what I keep hearing, oh, prices are high. Prices are high. Does it feel that way to you? Yeah, maybe you're talking to more buyers right now, but I feel like anything, I think, you know, every team is going to set what their price is, their initial ask, and then they'll adjust based on,

you know, what kind of response they're getting. If they're getting multiple teams bidding on the same guy, the price will go up. If they're not getting what they're hoping for, then the price might come down or it might just be what world will just hold. I think more for me this deadline at this point, when compared to other deadlines, I think you have less defined sellers right now. There's a lot of teams that are, you know, hey, we're right in the mix. And we need to, we need to give this group a chance to try to make a push here and maybe come midweek, we'll know more or maybe I'm actually going to try to add a little bit because the groups worked hard to put themselves in this position. And they're, they're two points out of a spot and I want to give them a chance to make it so it feels like maybe there's there's three or four more teams this year that aren't selling that may have in years past. And so that's maybe made the market a little less frothy.

Does the salary cap going up change how you and your colleagues will behave around deadline this year? I.e. once upon a time, coming off of the pandemic, the margin for error given the flat cap was really, really small. Like you could, everyone's going to carry a couple of mistakes. It's baked into the pie, but you can't have too many. And so I found that managers tended to trend more conservative. Now that there's a little, you know, it's a little bit looser, looser around the joints

as far as the cap goes in the summer. Do you think that changes how managers behave? I think having the guidance will definitely, to me what it helps is if you're looking to do maybe a hockey type deal, this deadline's something for a guy that has some term left after this year, a year or two years or even three years left on his deal. Now that you have a little visibility

into what the cap might be for the next three years, you just know you're not gonna be caught this summer with, hey, the cap's only going up a couple million, and now we gotta scramble to create some space because of what we did at the deadline. So maybe it allows teams to be a little more active looking at some guys that aren't necessarily rentals. I want to ask you about a couple of players that have really hit.

The Washington Capitals had a tremendous offseason. That's not exactly a secret and I'm not just shining the apple because you're on here with me. The evidence is there. What I like about how this team has been constructed is I like that there's established players that are growing up in the Washington capital system and there's also a good healthy mix of second chance players. You know, there's whether it's Pierre-Luc Dubois, whether it's Dylan Strom, whether

it's Jacob Chikran, like it's a real nice balance. You know, we started this conversation talking about chemistry and the room and all of that. I guess it's a real tip to your pro scouts more than anything else. We've always heard managers say, you know what, get them into our system and we'll unlock the brilliance that's always been in that player. And the Caps have been able to do that.

What goes into that? Like what's the secret ingredient you think that's allowed this team to get to this spot right now? Yeah, I think part of it is we got to a point where, you know, our core that had been so successful, you know, in the, I guess the 2010s, right, up to winning the Stanley Cup in 2018. I mean, they were obviously, they were getting older and we understood if we want to still be a competitive team, we're going to have to find some players kind of in there

early to mid twenties, because, you know, our amateur staff does a great job and we do a great job with our draft. But when you're picking 25, 26, 27 every year, like, you know, you're not always going to end up with the high end guys. And so you have to look for other ways to add those guys. And so it's just kind of being creative and keeping your ear to what's going on in the league and looking for those opportunities when they're there.

Because even though it maybe doesn't seem like it, those opportunities are potentially there more than you realize for a guy like a Dylan Strom or Pierre-Luc Dubois who, you know, you don't always think guys of that caliber will be available, but for whatever reasons they are. And so when they are, you kind of have to jump on it. And I also give a lot of credit to the group we have here

in the locker room, our leadership group, Alex, John, Tom, Nick Dowd. They've done a really good job bringing these new players in over the last few years and making them feel comfortable, making them feel part of the group, getting them up to speed quickly, especially this summer with as many new bodies as we brought in. It was right from the start of camp, you could see that everybody felt comfortable and happy to be here and working towards the same goal.

And to me, when you have a group of guys like that in the locker room, that's a huge thing to be able to say, hey, I know for whatever reason, it's not working for this guy and his current team, but kind of like you were saying, we're managed to say, we'll get them into our system, it'll work. That's kind of our thought is that, hey, we'll get them in because our group is strong enough to take this guy in and Spencer's open-minded enough to work with the guy.

And we think there's something here that could really help us. Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack, fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today, starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. Okay. Uh, I'm not doing my job. If I, uh,

if I don't ask you about Alexander Oveshkin, I can't believe we've gone 10 minutes without, you know, uh, talking about someone who's, who's poised to break one of the greatest records, uh, in the history of the sports. 11 goals shy and here we are with with Alex Oveshkin. Does your group already have like the activation plan ready to launch the minute this happens? Like I know there's like a lot of contingencies and moving pieces and all that. And the schedule is what the schedule is.

And one day, Ovi's going to score four and then he might not score another for a couple of games. I know it's, it's balls in the air, but do you have the plan ready to go as soon as it happens? I would say that the plan is in the works. Um, you know, the great thing about Ovi is, is, you know, he's always full of surprises. At the beginning of the year, people are asking, like, do you think there's any chance he does it this year? And here he's missed 16 games and he's on the precipice of it.

And I think so everybody's like, Oh, we better, uh, we better, we better call some meetings here pretty quick and get things, get things squared away. Cause he could have two or three big games and we're going to be down to single digits in a hurry. So, so they're definitely getting to work on it. I've been a little bit out of the loop with trade deadline stuff. I think I've missed on a couple of calls and a couple of meetings, but, uh, fortunately for them, that's not an area where I'm super strong. And we have a lot of people that are really strong at our group and our organization. So, um, I think it'll be great when it happens,

it's going to be really cool to see. And, and I hope it happens. Uh, I hope it happens really soon. And you hope it happens at home. I'm guessing if you want to throw that caveat in there too, that'd be great. I've been, I'll probably end up eating these words, but I've been telling people, anyone that'll listen, like just obvious flair for the dramatic. It's not like he's going to try to do it, but I just, for some reason, I just

feel like it will happen at home. It's just gonna work out that way, but we'll see. We have a lot of road games here down the stretch. All right, a couple of things, and listen, I know you're busy. I appreciate the generosity of your time. And I do wanna ask you about your family here in a couple of seconds,

but first you mentioned Spencer Carberry, who's like, I'll just speak from a media point of view. I mean, he's a gift. I mean, he's a great communicator. You always learn something when you talk to Spencer Carberry. I know when you guys brought him aboard there were other teams very much trying to hire Spencer Carberry. Just a wide-brush thought and you know the floor is yours. What was it, because I know you're integral in bringing him over to Washington, what was it that you saw in Spencer Carberry? I know he had been there previously in Hershey,

but like what did you see of him at the NHL level that led you guys to believe that he was the right guy for the Caps? Yeah, I mean, yeah, obviously the relationship helped, knowing him from Hershey and even in South Carolina where he started. I think the thing that's always impressed me about Carves is he's a really good communicator, which I think is probably the number one attribute you have to have now as an NHL coach. You have to be able to communicate. You have to be able to connect with the players.

You have to be able to hold them accountable, but also be able to help instruct and, you know, sit down with them and talk about what they need to do better and what they're doing well and he does all that on a daily basis. You won't find a harder worker. Every coach in this league, the hours these guys keep are astronomical. And he's right up there with all of them. And yeah, I mean, I think he's a high character guy. I think I remember reflecting after we hired him in Hershey.

And I didn't know how he would do as a head coach at the professional level. And then you see a few months in how well he's doing. And it just kind of reinforced me. like when you have a guy that you know is a high character hard-working guy it's it's you know you're taking a lot less risk on when you make that decision so I mean for me those attributes are all kind of he's so strong in all those areas that big huge big reason why he's having so much success.

Okay, I want to finish up by asking you one question about your family. And I've always recommended to people as far as hockey books go, one of my favorite hockey historians is a guy named Craig Bolesby who's written a couple of tremendous books. One is called Empire of Ice about the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, 1911 to 1926, and the other one, which is a quickie read too, 1913, the year they invented the future of hockey. Now, we always hear about moving the game forward, and whenever I hear that, I always think of your family,

because Lester and Frank were the only ones that did actually physically move the game forward. This was always a rush game with the puck getting passed backwards. It was essentially rugby on ice. And it was your family, Frank and Lester, who moved it forward with the forward pass. So here becomes my question for you. Choose the question you would like to answer. One, given when I think of the Patrick family, I always think about rules and how they change the rules and how we still, we're still dining out on the innovations from the Patrick family

and going back to the turn of the last century. So if you could change any one rule in hockey, what would it be? Or is there an old PCHA rule that you looked at and maybe look at now and said, you know what? I'm really proud that my family's name will forever be attached to that rule. I'll give you an answer for both.

I'll do the second one first so I can kind of think about the first one, but so this isn't totally an answer to your question because I don't know if it was a PCHL rule or not, but I always liked this one because I think it was like an Austin Powers, Dr. Evil or something about somebody claimed that they invented the question mark. And I feel like this was my family's claim of inventing the question mark. And that was my father told me that I think one of them, either Frank or Lester was the first person to put numbers on jerseys. Yes.

Yes. And they click. And the reason they did that was so they could sell programs to you so you could see what number each player was. Yes. So that's my family's little we invented the question mark moment. We put numbers on the back of jerseys. I tell people that they're like, no, that's not right.

I'm like, I'm pretty sure it's right. It's true. Yeah. 100% true. Give that to the Patrick. So now I've got someone to back me up on it. Yeah. A rule change. Most of the rule changes I come up with is usually I'm watching a game and something

happens to us, I'm like, oh man, like I wish, and the one thing I always kind of like get like, it's like, it's like thanks but no thanks, it's like when you get that penalty call, a power play with like 30 seconds left in a period. Yes. To me, you lose that, you get the team, you're buzzing around in their end and setting up chances and then the buzzer goes, now you gotta center ice face off and you're regrouping from the neutral zone to start the next period.

So I don't know, something where there's a penalty call in the last minute of a period, the period just extends until the end of the penalty. And then as soon as that penalty is over, the buzzer goes. So at least you get the benefit of the full, if you got a team on the ropes, sure, you know, the buzzer doesn't save them. And I'm sure social media, if they're listening to this, we'll have a bunch of opinions on this and I'd have to workshop a few things here to make it.

Make it all work. But yeah, it feels like something that you should get more reward for a team potentially preventing a scoring chance by taking a penalty in the last minute of a period. If you'll indulge me for one minute, I'll take that one step here. Every year I have one thing that I'm obsessed with and for whatever reason this year my thing is I don't ever want to outside of opening the period or after a goal see a face-off in the neutral zone ever again. I think all face-offs should be right beside the net to increase scoring chances. I mean we all know what face-offs and neutral zones are anyhow. I

think if your team goes offside the face-off should come all the way back down into your zone. Now people have said, okay, it's going to be more conservative with the zone entries, et cetera. And I understand all that. But I don't understand the idea of dropping the puck that far away from a scoring chance. Now I'm kind of putting you on the spot here, not asking you to take to the general managers meetings.

But if you want to go ahead, present it as your own. Do you have an initial thought on getting rid of all neutral zone face-offs outside of the beginning of the period and after a goal? Yeah, I think it's interesting. I'm trying to remember as you're telling me that when I was going to the AHL meetings a lot in my prior role, there was a rule introduced where I

think it was had to do to do with power play. So a penalty called at the end of a period, so as time expired or after the period ended, the proposal was instead of having that face off as center ice, that face off should be in the offensive zone. So kind of what you're saying, but not as extreme maybe is what you're saying. I forget why it got shot down. I think a lot of it was just general fan confusion reasons. But yeah, I'm with you. I think those, you know, it's funny when you see how often guys get kicked out of face offs in the offensive slash defensive zone. And then you'll see two guys cheating incredibly in the center ice dot and you know the ref kind of tries to

straighten them out and then eventually just drops a puck because it's like let's just get going here. So I see what you're saying about the relative importance of the face-offs. Or we can take it historical and just start with a puck on the ice and a referee isn't even in the circle it just rings a bell and that's how face-offs use. Whenever I hear someone say, I'm a traditionalist, I say, oh you don't like the drop for the face-off because face-off used to start with the puck on the ice, but I digress and you're a busy guy. You do the old street hockey face-off, right?

You tap your sticks three times and then you go. Let's go back to street hockey, now you're getting somewhere. That's when I first learned face-off technique and that third tap, you hit their stick as hard as you can, and then you're going to win the face off every time and then you swing your hips around and box out and the fan, the draws yours and you got possession. Uh, Chris, this is great. Thanks so much for stopping by.

Congratulations on the, uh, the Lindgren deal and best of luck as trade deadline approaches. Thank you. Really. Great. Great talking to you. I went to the dark man, he tried to give me a little medicine I'm like, nah man, that's fine I'm not against those methods, but no It's me, myself and Alice gonna be fixing my mind

It's you on the back end I turned on the music I turned on the back end I turned on the music I do want to back it up I turned on the music It's turned up, up, out That you sometimes lose it Helping on the days that went wrong Do you have business insurance? If not, how would you pay to recover from a cyber attack,

fire damage, theft, or a lawsuit? No business or profession is risk-free. Without insurance, your assets are at risk from major financial losses, data breaches, and natural disasters. Get customized coverage today starting at $19 per month at zensurance.com. Be protected. Be Zen. The Daily Face Off Trade Deadline Special is coming your way once again on March 7th from 11am to 4pm Eastern. We're going to be live and breaking down every single move as it happens in real time. I'll be joined by the Daily Face Off crew bringing you instant reaction, expert analysis, and all the behind the scenes drama for the biggest news and trades from around the league. And here's the best part, we've got special guests lined up throughout the show to give you exclusive insights from some of the biggest names in the game.

From the blockbuster deals to the surprise moves, we'll be covering it all. So what are you waiting for? Subscribe to the Daily Faceoff YouTube, follow us on socials and on March 7th. Join us as we break down the biggest deadline day in hockey. You won't want to miss it.