Group A Dominates

Sorry for the late post, I had engagements this evening.

Group A didn't just win the game by dominating almost the entire game, but also by scoring seven straight goals in the third period. Dustin Carlson's nightmare as the blue team's goaltender. It capped a great scrimmage for the boys in the white Capitals' practice jerseys in the second of three scrimmages schedule for the week as they win it 8 - 3.

Group A had three dominating lines, the Backman/Glass/Bruess line (or the BBG line), the Perreault/Mitchell/Sheen line, and the Dubuc/DiSimone/Broda line. Each one of the lines scored at least two goals. Michael Dubuc now has 5 goals in this summer's camp, while Mathieu Perreault scored a pair today. The BBG line was a great grinding line that kept the blue side frustrated and making bad mistakes.

The overall play was a bit sloppy, a sign that the week is wearing long with some of the prospects. Bad passes, misplays with the puck were the norm. If it were not for Garrett Zemlak putting forth a tremendous effort for the Blue team in the first half of the game, the white score could have easily reached 10 or 12 goals. But Zemlak kept his team in it, as he posted a shut out in the 30 minutes he played.

Dmitri Orlov has been having a great development camp. In his scouting report they call him an "opportunistic hitter" and he did find a couple of opportunities to pull out his hip check. He has the speed to make up for mistakes, he knows when to pinch in and when to back off. Very rarely was he ever out of position. Toward the end though, the Group B just couldn't over come the skill and speed of Group A and Orlov was not completely immune from being taken advantage of. Perreault pick-pocketed Orlov for his second goal of the day and that was the dagger in the heart of any comeback for the blue team.

Speaking of blue team players that impressed, Cody Eakin also did well. His speed factored in two goals for the blue team. One an assist, the other a goal. John Carlson also helped the blue team's cause with a couple of good clears and some great passes. He has yet to have a chance to open up and use that cannon of his.

There was a scary moment in the scrimmage when Jake Hauswirth crashed the net with Anton Gustafsson. The pair of them went into the net hard and Lil' Gus got the worst of the goal post. He cut his forehead really bad and he was stunned and on the ice bleeding as trainers came to the rescue. Hauswirth and Zach Miskovic (who also was in the collision) looked to be a bit shaken but okay. Braden Holtby, the white team's goaltender, was hardly hit at all as the players dove to miss him. Gustafsson did not return.

Injuries weren't uncommon on the fourth day of Development Camp. Patrick Wey caught a puck in the mouth, required stitches. Stefan Della Rovere had to sit out due to a sprained shoulder (he also had stitches on his upper lip). Joe Finley took a stick up high and got cut on his lower lip. It is a sign that every player is playing as hard as they can to impress the Caps' management.

Finley has been slowly improving through the course of the camp. On day one, he seemed to want to hit everything in sight, often slipping out of position to do it. In scrimmage two, he played a better positional game, letting the hits come to him. He also tightened up his discipline after getting whistled for two penalties in scrimmage one.

I would not be surprised if the coaches decide to mix up some of the players between Groups A and B. Group A just was too much for in the second scrimmage. The only answer the blue team seemed to have was being more physical and pray their goaltender can help them out.

Saturday's scrimmage should be a good one in either case.

Caps Notes:

• Jeff Schultz did sign his qualifying offer, but faxed the one year, signed contract not to the Caps office. Instead he faxed it to NHL headquarters. It doesn't void the contract, usually the Caps will alert the league's office of the contract signing. But the confusion made for some he said, they said comments last night. In either case, Schultz will be back as a Capital for next season.
• Japers Rink figure a way to see everyone tweets from development camp. It was very sweet of him to include mine, as choppy and mis-spelled as it was.
• The Caps' prospects got a guided tour of the DC and WashingtonCaps.com was there to film it. At one point Jake Hauswirth is wired for sound, it is both funny and educational! Also if you watch within the opening song sequence you will see Garrett Mitchell almost miss the bus after the White House stop.
  

Group A Takes The 1st Scrimmage

Group A, dressed in the white Capitals' practice jerseys, defeated Group B, dressed in the blue, 5 - 2. Michael Dubuc scored the hattrick for the white team, while Braden Holtby was the only goaltender to post a shutout in 30 minutes of play.

The day included some big hits and some great action. For a first scrimmage, the boys didn't disappoint. One thing was for sure, just about every player gave it their all. Not one player came off the ice dry, everyone broke a sweat.

Stefan Della Rovere had the best performance of the day before he hurt his shoulder. He was physical on the puck and created opportunities deep in the white teams zone. All was missing was a goal for the tough forward, but there were no shortage of hitting. At one point Della Rovere hit Joe Finley behind the net. Finley took the worst of the hit, he fell like a heap against the boards to the ice surprised to be hit that hard by a little guy. Unfortunately, DR missed a check early in the second half and went into the boards hard. He will have his shoulder examined, he won't know until tomorrow whether he can continue.

Dmitri Orlov also played well, the best defenseman on the ice by far, in my opinion. He had two massive hits, one on an invitee Sorkin. He cut into him with a good hip check and it sent Sorkin flying head over heels. The other hit was a good shoulder check on Zack Miskovic. Orlov was solid on defense, a good skater he was never really beat.

Also on the blue team side John Carlson played well, getting a goal off of a rebound from a Orlov slapper on Dan Dunn. Josh Godfrey did well, but he would at times carry the puck into the offensive zone and tend to stay there a bit longer than he should. Often a forward was left behind to play defense and that led to white team chances.

On the white team, Mathieu Perreault was a tremendous puck mover that worked hard. He actually broke his skate when he side stepped a hit from Della Rovere. He missed a few shifts as they fixed his skate. Michael Dubuc also had a good game. He scored the last three goals for the white team, a hattrick. It included an empty netter goal for his second goal, and then he scored after that one with mere seconds left on the clock.

Braden Holtby was very good in net for the white team. He was the only goaltender to post a shutout, and he had to kill off a penalty in the first minute when Finley took a tripping call just :16 seconds in. He was solid, calm and collected in net.

Those that seemed to disappoint to me were Anton Gustafsson and Joe Finley. Gustafsson just seemed lost in the shuffle. He did nothing really to stand out offensively. He had a few back checks that were impressive, a couple of good defensive plays. But he did not produce much on the offensive end. Lil' Gus might be feeling the pressure of the Capitals and his father's legacy.

Finley did what he could, but he wasn't the fastest or the hardest hitting player on the ice. He took two penalties, one a trip and the other was a high stick to a player in front of the net away from the puck. Finley is a big guy, no doubt, but he was hit off his feet by some smaller players. Not a good game for him.

Tomorrow will be the second scrimmage, at the same time 3:30 pm, with the third one on Saturday.

Caps Notes:

• The Caps get some key players back into the fold. Defenseman Shaone Morrisonn forwards Kyle Wilson, Eric Fehr and Chris Bourque signed their qualifing offers (all one year deals). Steve Pinizotto signed a two way, two year contract with the Capitals as well. There is some confusion over if Jeff Schultz signed his contract but I am sure that will be sorted by tomorrow.
• The Capitals schedule has been released. The open at Boston on October first. Then they return home to play Toronto for their home opener on the 3rd of October. Then the schedule just gets harder as their next four opponents will be Philly, NY Rangers, Detroit and New Jersey. Tough start.
• GM George McPhee said it is 50/50 whether or not the Capitals will play at Olympic Stadium against the Montreal Canadiens. The Habs reported having a game at the gigantic stadium on November 28th, and the Caps are scheduled to play Montreal on that date. But nothing has been finalized. "You always look at what benefits the team," Bruce Boudreau said when asked about playing at the stadium, "For the coaching staff you have to look at all the positives and all the negatives in doing it. Right now I don't know enough of either."
  

A Good Day For Scrimmage

The Capitals' prospects will do some time trials and agility stuff this morning. This afternoon will be the intrasquad scrimmage. It's the first of three such contests through out camp pinning Group A against Group B.

Both Groups have had a chance to get a taste of the Caps' system in practices on Monday and Tuesday. Practice can tell the coaches a lot about a player; his work ethic, what he is capable of and more. But there is something about putting these players in a game-like atmosphere. It brings out the competitive side.

Several players that sort of just got by in the practices, but impressed in the scrimmages. One of which was Jake Hauswirth in last summer's camp. He was an unknown when he came to camp. But when the scrimmages started, Hauswirth used his size and good hands to impress both management and fans alike. It eventually led to a contract for him.

Stefan Della Rovere had a similar story. The youngest player on the ice last summer excelled in the scrimmages and now, this summer, he could find a job in Hershey.

The scrimmage is at Kettler Capitals Iceplex, and the puck drops at 3:30pm. I will be doing live tweeting from the scrimmage as soon as I get there this afternoon. Expect a big crowd.

Caps Notes:

• The NHL came out with the preseason schedule yesterday and the following is the Caps preseason line up:
  

  TBA	@ Buffalo	TBA
  Sat. 9/19	@ Chicago	8:30p
  Mon. 9/21	vs. Buffalo	7p
  Wed. 9/23	vs. Chicago	7p
  Thur. 9/24	@ NY Rangers	7p
  Sun. 9/27	vs. NY Rangers	Noon

  
  Do you see something interesting? No Southeast Division teams. Hmmm. The regular season schedule is do out today (7/15) around 3 pm.
• The first Capitals Convention tickets are on sale and nearly 1,000 tickets were sold in the first hour (according to Caps' PR). More info on how to buy tickets and more about the convention can be found on the Capitals' website.

A Look At Day Two

This morning was my chance to check out the skaters in Group B in the morning sessions for the Capitals' Development Camp at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex. The second group consisted of Anton Gustafsson, John Carlson and Francois Bouchard to name a few.

There were a few standouts this morning for me. John Carlson is a lot faster than he was last summer. Along with his improved speed is his overall look. He played well. Besides a few flubs here or there, Carlson's play was heads above shoulders better than his piers. He also looked to be a good leader as he had to fill in the details to his line mate Dmitri Orlov (who also did well today I thought) on what they were doing. Defenseman Josh Godfrey returns to camp coming from the championship winning ECHL South Carolina Stingrays. He did well this morning and is playing with some confidence.

The line of Jake Hauswirth, Stefan Della Rovere and an invitee named Meyer were the best line I have seen in camp thus far. In a 3 on 3 drill, the three moved the puck effectively along the wall and keeping their feet moving. The result was a pretty top shelf goal and the only time I said "great play" all day. Della Rovere looks as if he gained some weight and his confidence is over brewing on the ice. He looks stronger and smarter than last summer.

Dean Evason, assistant coach, was in charge of the practice. The coaches ran the players through a series of complicated drills to test the players ability to think quickly. Hershey's new coach, Mark French, was also on the ice often stopping drills for better instruction. The practice was a physical and mental workout for the players, with emphasis on speed and accuracy.

One player that impressed me with his speed was Cody Eakin. The kid's got wheels with his size his biggest down fall. At one point he chased down a line mate in a drill the length of the ice with at least two strides behind him.

Anton Gustafsson seemed a little lost in the crowd today. He was neither outstanding nor bad. It could be that it is day two, but I was expecting a bit more.

Tomorrow afternoon there will be the intrasquad scrimmage, the first of three. Many players will be looking to make an impression on the Caps' management so expect each one to be a competitive and enjoyable event to watch.

Caps Notes:

• It was brought to my attention this morning that the Detroit Red Wings had the player rights to prospect Nils Backstrom. It's true that Backstrom was drafted by the Red Wings, but they never signed the player making him a free agent.
  
• The Capitals re-signed Boyd Gordon. He accepted the one year, $761,250 contract to stay with the Caps.
  
• The Dave Fay Memorial Hockey Game is set. It's an event with celebrities playing for a good cause. The game will be on July 25th at Kettler.
  

Another Day, Another Group

The Capitals' Development Camp rolls along and this morning I will get the chance to take in Group B, the afternoon skate that I didn't see yesterday. From all reports, this group seems a bit more polished and professional with Anton Gustafsson and John Carlson both impressing management and fans alike.

Also in Group B are a couple of goaltenders that are new to the Caps system. Both invitees, Dustin Carlson and Garrett Zemlak (another Garrett, what the heck!). Zemlak played with the Prince Albert Raiders of the WHL and posted a 16-12-1 record and a .896 save percentage in 33 games played. Carlson played 39 games with Ohio State and posted a 21-12-3 record and a .917 save percentage.

An interesting note to this year's camp, at least 10 of the camp invitees wore either the Captain's C or an Assistant Captain's A on their sweaters last season. That is a lot of leadership in the locker room at this summer's camp.

If you see Andrew Glass today at camp, wish him a happy birthday. He turns 20 today. He skates in Group A.

You can follow my observations of the morning skate at Kettler on my Twitter account: twitter.com/pckhdsthghts.

Gordon Resigns

Boyd Gordon accepts his qualifying offer of $761,250. Seems small change for a very important part of the Capitals penalty kill and face off man. Having Gordon in the hand definitely makes the defensive side easier for the Capitals.

For more info, check WashingtonCaps.com.