Developing Day 3; White Team Wins

Team White 8, Team Blue 4

First scrimmage of the Capitals development camp is in the books. After a good 15 minute delay to replace the glass on the Blue side after warm ups, the kids didn't disappoint as they dropped the puck. Here are some quick thoughts on the scrimmage

• Michael Dubuc (72) was the stand out player on the white team. He scored twice and must have been a +3 or +4. He also changed slowly, it seemed he was always the last one off the ice from his line.
• Jake Hauswirth (42) was the stand out player for the blue team. A tall gangly looking forward had a nice one timer goal on Simeon Varlomov (40) and was involved in a couple of the other goals for blue.
• Karl Alzner (47) is text book when he plays defense. He is hardly ever out of position and he always takes the cautious route and finds the open winger to clear his zone. He is a smooth skater too, heads and shoulders beyond the other defensemen.
• Kevin Clark (57) is the smallest player on the ice, but he is fearless. More than once he went into the corners with guys twice his size. Although he didn't come out with the puck some times, he takes a punishing each time and there is not hesitation on his part.
• Victor Bartley (64) loves to hit. Maybe too much. He was involved in a hit that hurt a blue team player and he was called for a penalty for roughing after hitting another up high.
• Oskar Osala (48) needs to work on his curl and drag. Everytime he tried the move he would make it past the defender, but the puck didn't.
• Mathieu Perreault (85) and Francios Bouchard (36) both scored although Bouchard looked a little uncomfortable to me (injury maybe). He didn't look as fast as he was last year and he seemed to get lost in the traffic a lot. His one goal was a deflection off a point shot.
• Varlomov and Michal Neuvirth (30) both only allowed 2 goals, but Varlomov looked sharper. Braden Holtby (70) let in six goals and looked a bit nervous after every goal. Dan Dunn (80) only allowed two.
• The play often looked bogged down alot, and even though there were a lot of good hits and near misses, it seemed the talent players didn't seem to have much room. Maybe it was first scrimmage jitters.
• One player I thought looked really good in the practices was John Carlson (74), a defenseman that seemed to have a laser of a shot and was a quick skater. However in the scrimmage he was very wreckloose with the puck.

For the most part the scrimmage was pretty fun to watch. The kids came out and played hard. But you can start to see who has that "it" factor and others who seem to be struggling. There were no fights, and most hits and pushing were followed by smiles and friendly jawing. It should be a bit more exciting tomorrow when Jose Theodore will be in-house as they introduce the new #1.