“Every coach has some sort of barometer to see who worked hard in the summer and who took it easier than they should have,” said Washington Capitals' coach Bruce Boudreau after the opening session of the Capitals rookie camp. “I thought most of our guys were really good today. A couple of the guys who were late additions probably didn’t skate as much.”
During this initial session, the young players faced a hard-working practice that concluded with a lengthy conditioning skate.
The rookie camp roster is comprised of 23 players -- 19 members of the Capitals’ organization, together with forward Ryan Jasinsky and defensemen Aaron Dawson, Ryan Kerr and Kevin Schmidt who are free-agent invitees.
The most recent first-round picks on the ice this week are center Anton Gustafsson (pictured) and defenseman John Carlson, both first-round selections in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.
Carlson impressed at last fall’s rookie and regular training camps, and was a standout during the 2008-09 season, playing with the Hershey Bears for the Calder Cup championship.
Gustafsson, on the other hand, faced a season that was plagued by injuries. So he opted for a jump-start on the season, by arriving in Arlington weeks ago to prepare for his bid for a nice spot on the team. When asked whether the early arrival was helpful, he responded, "Last time in development camp I did not feel half as good as I feel now. It feels very good. Those three weeks made a huge difference.”
Gustafsson understands the importance of making a strong showing. "I am going to stay [in North America] all year,” he said. "It’s a pretty big thing for me. The last three weeks I have been looking forward to this all the time, just getting in here and getting started working.”
Carlson, who has already been attracting considerable attention, said, "I wanted to take a lot of time off after the season. I played I think 110 games [in 2008-09] or something crazy like that, so I did that and I thought in summer [development] camp, maybe I wasn’t as ready as I should have been. I got onto the ice a lot after that and after that really started my summer training on the ice. I felt good out there today and just look forward to the game on Friday.”
Boudreau, who coached the 2005-06 Bears to a Calder Cup title, is hoping that some of last season's Hershey standouts will come along to be strong for the Capitals.
“If you look at the history of teams that win the Calder Cup, they always have four or five guys playing in the NHL in the next year or next year and a half at least,” Boudreau opined. “They’re going to push some of these guys that think they’ve been safe for years to make sure they play some of their best hockey.
“I think we’ve got three good goalies. I think we have NHL defensemen. We have a multitude of forwards that are ready to make the next step. I think there are battles all over the ice. It should make for good stories everywhere.”
After the Rookies, some of the team's veterans took to the ice -- and Boudreau watched for a bit. "I don’t know if I pay that much attention to what they accomplish,” he said, "but you certainly look at all the players and see what their summer conditioning was like. And they all look like they are in tremendous shape, so it makes the coach smile.”
Some notes from the Capitals on Monday: Forward Stefan Della Rovere “got his bell rung” last week according to Boudreau, and he was held off the ice for the first day’s work as a result … Defenseman-turned-forward Joe Finley was impressive but he left the ice early with some soreness … Boudreau’s sons Andy and Ben participated in the first day’s on-ice activities, wearing white sweaters sans nameplates ... Braden Holtby and Semyon Varlamov were the goaltenders for today's rookie session. Michal Neuvirth and Brett Leonhardt were the afternoon netminders in the veterans' informal session. Varlamov and Neuvirth will trade places for Tuesday's on-ice sessions.
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