Brett Connolly bounces back from benching

Barry Trotz wanted Brett Connolly to control his emotions. After Connolly returned from a concussion on Nov. 12, the Capitals coach said the 25-year-old spent his next seven games trying to force too many situations.

So with other forwards available, Trotz scratched a healthy Connolly for the next two games.

But with the Capitals’ recent third-line “crushed by the numbers,” Trotz went back to Connolly on Saturday — and the forward scored on his very first shift,  63 seconds into the Capitals’ 4-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Connolly said he’s just trying to stay poised. 

“Any time you score, you ask anyone, you feel good right away,” Connolly said. “It was nice to get that one and I can just go out there and make good plays and be confident and all that. This is a step in the right direction, for sure.”

Connolly admitted “nothing was really going” after he came back from missing seven games with a concussion. In his absence, the Capitals benefitted from Chandler Stephenson’s emergence. When he returned, Connolly found himself on the team’s fourth line, and was bumped out of the lineup when Tyler Graovac returned from injured reserve.

Trotz said Connolly put pressure on himself to make plays after being hurt. The Capitals coach added Andre Burakovsky, who has been out since Oct. 24 with a fractured thumb, is likely to do the same when he returns, which Trotz said would “get him a good seat on the bench” if he tries to force it.

“Sometimes you’ve got to slow it down,” Trotz said. “And the reason they [force things] is because they care. I’m not making light of it, they really do. They want to get back in the lineup and have an impact. They care. Sometimes they try too hard.”

Before inserting him back in the lineup, Trotz said he told Connolly that he needed to “control his focus.” Already trying to makeup for lost time from the injury, Connolly was in a slump to start the season. He had just two goals on the year — each coming a month apart.

In some ways, Connolly’s inconsistency has been the story of his career. The Tampa Bay Lightning drafted him with the sixth overall pick in 2010, but traded him midway through his fourth season.

He wound up a free agent in 2016, signing a one-year, $850,000 contract with the Capitals. While he initially provided stability to the Capitals’ third-line last year, Connolly was benched in the playoffs, seeing his ice time gradually decline until Trotz opted to go with seven defensemen against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round.

But Connolly, who signed a two-year, $3 million contract in the offseason, has shown flashes, and he was a contender in training camp to be in the Capitals’ top six. Last season, he scored a career-high 15 goals despite seeing just 10:41 of ice time per game. He thrived next to Burakovsky and center Lars Eller. 

On Saturday, Connolly was again reunited with Eller. On their first shift, Eller found a wide-open Connolly in the center of their offensive zone — and Connolly scored with a wrist-shot right past reigning Vezina Trophy winner Sergei Bobrovsky.

“It’ll come,” Connolly said. “Last year, this was kind of the time that me, Lars and Burky really took off. … Obviously, you want to have good starts to the year every year, but sometimes it doesn’t happen. Sometimes things go against you, but you’ve still gotta focus on little things and practice hard and things will turn around for you.”