Carlson thriving for Capitals 1 year after scary head injury

ARLINGTON, Va. -- John Carlson will count his blessings this Christmas and be grateful they include -- knock on wood -- good health.

But the Washington Capitals defenseman didn't expect the slap shot that hit him in the head last Dec. 23 to be in the forefront of his mind a year later when he played against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Capital One Arena on Saturday (7 p.m. ET; MNMT, BSSUN).

Or when the 33-year-old unwraps presents with his family Monday.

"Maybe I'll just be extra thankful that I'm not in the hospital," Carlson said. "And all things considered, honestly, it could've been really bad. But it wasn't. I felt great soon after that. I had Christmas with my family. It wasn't like I was laid up with the eyes in the back of the head or something. I enjoyed it.

"It was just not the most ideal thing."

That's an understatement.

Carlson left the ice with blood gushing from a cut in his head and spent the night in the hospital after a slap shot from Winnipeg Jets defenseman Brenden Dillon struck him near his right ear, fracturing his skull and lacerating his temporal artery. He considered himself fortunate that he felt relatively normal within a few days, but he missed three months waiting for the fracture to heal before returning against the Chicago Blackhawks on March 23.

If Washington going 14-18-4 in Carlson's absence and missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season for the first time since 2014 wasn't sufficient evidence of his importance, his play this season has been. Carlson has been a workhorse for the Capitals (17-9-4), leading them with 18 assists in 30 games, including three in a 3-2 overtime win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday, and his 19 points are one behind team leaders Dylan Strome and Alex Ovechkin. He's second in the NHL in averaging 25:45 in ice time per game, behind Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty (25:55).

"We saw it last year when we lost him for a couple months. We kind of struggled," Capitals defenseman Martin Fehervary said. "He's a big part of our group on and off the ice, both ways. He's a great teammate. He knows how to play. He's our best defenseman."

Carlson believes he can still be better, including in helping run the Capitals power play, which is 28th in the NHL at 12.5 percent. But he said he's felt as good as he has physically from the start of a season because he had three fewer months of wear and tear last season and a long offseason to train.

For the most part, playing the final 10 games last season helped Carlson get past any apprehension about pucks buzzing around his head. He acknowledged that he has "scar tissue" mentally, though that is common with traumatic injuries.

"You know where you were when something bad happens," he said. "It's just second nature to think about it. When I walk by the room [in Capital One Arena] where they were working on me, I think about it. That's just the way life is."

Carlson had a triggering moment when Capitals forward Anthony Mantha was hit in the left ear with a deflected shot against the Florida Panthers on Nov. 8. The force of the puck opened a cut that required a few stitches and ruptured Mantha's ear drum, which caused him to temporarily lose his hearing in that ear and have balance issues for a few days.

Carlson couldn't help flashing back to his own experience.

"I got a little ringing in my head," Carlson said. "It's difficult. I didn't want to look at it. Obviously I worried about him right away too."

Although Mantha's injuries weren’t as severe and he only missed three games, Carlson thinks he had it easier than Mantha in some ways.

"If I didn't have a fracture, once they repaired the artery, he dealt with more than I did," he said. "I didn't have any of that equilibrium stuff. I didn't have anything. It was a very weird thing. Nothing really made sense about it."

Being mostly isolated from his teammates and not knowing when he'd play again might have been Carlson's biggest challenges.

"For a lot of the early portion of the rehab, I didn't know if it was a possibility to get back. Not ever, but last season," he said. "You're showing up here before everyone every day. If you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's a lot easier. But with a lot of these things, it's 'Oh, we'll see how you feel. Let's see what the scans show.' And it's all up in the air."

That time away gave Carlson a greater appreciation for what he missed. Now he's enjoying helping the Capitals have success while integrating some younger players into lineup.

"I'm having some of the most fun," said Carlson, who is in his 15th  NHL season, all with the Capitals. "It just feels like this is an ushering of a new style of game and some of these young guys are doing so great, which is awesome. We haven't had that here in a while and it's fun. It's rejuvenating."

Carlson has been essential to that process on a defense that includes Rasmus Sandin, 23; Alexander Alexeyev, 24; and Fehervary, 24. He plays in all situations and carried much of the workload when veteran defensemen Trevor van Riemsdyk and Joel Edmundson were injured earlier this season. He played more than 27 minutes in 11 of Washington's first 30 games, including a season-high 30:05 against the Buffalo Sabres on Nov. 22.

With 641 points (142 goals, 499 assists) in 957 regular-season games, Carlson is one assist from becoming the third player to reach 500 with the Capitals, joining Nicklas Backstrom (762) and Alex Ovechkin (677), and the 35th defenseman in NHL history to reach the milestone. He is 27 games from passing Calle Johansson (983) for the most by a defenseman with Washington and 43 games from becoming the third player to play 1,000 for the team, following Ovechkin (1,377) and Backstrom (1,105).

"I know a lot of people look at points and the guys that are quarterbacking real effective power plays and that's great and there's a lot of good [defensemen] in the League," Capitals coach Spencer Carbery said. "But the ones that can play 30 minutes and play when you need to win a game 1-0 and shut down other team's best lines, that's what John Carlson does. He does it all."