Sunday Night

Aside from the Redskins playing unusually well today, the rest has been pretty awful. So I'll jump right into the thing that makes me happy.

Rookie camp started this morning. Obviously I was not there, so all the information I have on the topic is coming from outside sources. Tarik and Peerless get the credit. Both sources indicate that Coach Boudreau has things under control and is giving the young a guys a taste of what it takes to play at the NHL level.

Apparently the last 25 minutes of practice was nothing but variations of "Herbies" (blueline, back, redline, back, far blueline back, far redline, back). Tarik wrote that it looked like that scene from "Miracle" after the Norway game.

The winners (those who could stand after) of that part of practice were Karl Alzner and John Carlson. That just tells me that Karl has been preparing and is fully committed to making the team right out of camp. The losers (those on their backs at the end) were Matthieu Perreault, Anton Gustafsson and Dmitry Kugryshev.

I love the quote from Dmitry after practice. "What this training session did for me is show that I need to be 150-percent ready, not 100-precent."

I'm pleased Boudreau did this on the first day. It will undoubtedly send a message to all the kids looking to show their best stuff to the organization. Most of them won't make the big club or Hershey this year, so this experience should give them an idea of what is expected when they report to camp next year.

Also, Siemon Varlamov, Michal Neuvirth and Daren Machesney all looked good in practice. GMGM has said that they are all beyone the ECHL level and that only two of them will be in Hershey to start the season. Meaning there will be an odd man out. Whether one goes back to Europe on loan or gets dealt somewhere else, it's a good problem to have. I could definately see Varlamov as the opening night starter in two years.

Lastly, Ovie is apparently playing "Big daddy" to the young Russians at camp this week. He worked with them in Russia all summer and has had them over for dinner this week. This is wonderful to see and yet another reason why Ovie is awesome both on and off the ice.