Pre-Camp Updates

Galiev signs his contract, Neuvy hits DC

The QMJHL's preseason is already in swing, and Capitals prospect Sam Carrier has started with his new team, Baie-Comeau Drakkar. Drakkar played their first preaseason game on Friday, August 19, and Carrier made his debut in style - he scored one goal and two assists in a 6-2 win over Chicoutimi. 

He also wore an A on his sweater for the game, which may or may not indicate that he will be an alternate captain for the coming season. Drakkar played another game against Chicoutimi on Sunday, but Carrier did not play in that game.

The OHL and the WHL do not begin their preseasons until next week.

Over the past few days, a group of players consisting of John Carlson, Matt Hendricks, Jeff Halpern, Stanislav Galiev, Dmitri Orlov, and former Capitals goaltender Brent Johnson have been practicing at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. Today there was a new arrival at the rink: Michal Neuvirth joined the group (about halfway through the skate) for the first time this summer, flying in from the Czech Republic earlier this week.

Hendricks led drills this morning, and they concluded their skate with a modified game of shinny, setting up goalposts on the opposite ends of one zone of the ice. Coach Bob Woods' son Brendan, who plays hockey at Wisconsin, also participated in the skate. Woods was a free agent invitee to Capitals development camp in 2010.

After the skate this morning, Stanislav Galiev tweeted that he had signed his three-year entry-level contract with the Capitals.

A few photos from today's skate are here.

Observations from Scrimmage #2

Just a couple of quick notes as today was the second scrimmage and also the shortest day of development camp.

• Travis Boyd is unbelievable. He has incredible hockey sense and vision way beyond his 17 years. He has the innate ability to see exactly how a play is forming, and set up several chances and goals.
• Dmitri Orlov is very strong and makes great hits, but if he has the puck, he carries it way too far into the zone, nearly to the crease sometimes. It leaves just one defenseman back at the blue line, and if a breakaway forms the other way, Orlov is totally behind the play and in trouble. He has to learn how to reel in his excitement for contributing offensively and find a balance between contributing while remaining defensive-minded. I'm sure the coaches will try to get him to adjust that aspect of his game.
• Someone I may try to talk to at some point is T.J. Syner. He's very small (probably 5'6") but he's incredibly fast and very strong. I'm not sure if he's contributed any points in scrimmages (scoring is not being announced in the rink after goals), but he has an interesting skill set.
• Garrett Mitchell's shootout goal was gorgeous. A Twitter follower compared it to Matt Hendricks' chosen shootout move, and I don't disagree. He scored the lone shootout goal to win the scrimmage for Group A.
• Philipp Grubauer has been getting better every day. He was very sharp in the scrimmage. He stopped all shootout attempts, even boldly slapping away with his stick Stanislav Galiev's attempt. (a wonderful YouTube user got video of the whole shootout, catching Mitchell's lovely goal at about 0:48 and Grubauer slapping the puck right out out Galiev's grasp at 1:19)
• There were two fights in today's game, both involving Scott Wietecha. He fought both Garrett Mitchell and later, Danick Paquette. The fight with Mitchell was fairly tame, just a little bit of grappling, and the two were separated. The fight with Paquette was much more spirited. Paquette, in his area of expertise, was not hesitant to throw punches. Paquette got the take down, and Wietecha had to go to the dressing room for repairs. When he returned, his right eye was already massively swollen and it looked like he also had a cut above his eye.

Danick Paquette met the media after the scrimmage, and went to the main focus area in front of all the cameras and lights. As he approached the microphone, he was slightly awed that he was getting the attention, and said (my audio was not on at the time), "I feel like President!"

And now, presented without further comment: Danick Paquette.