Interesting Monday - Caps Development Camp Opened

Well I got busy at work and just made it over to Kettler to see the last 1/2 hour of "Group B's" workout. I was pleasantly surprised to see head coach Bruce Boudreau presiding, clearly he takes this seriously. Even though right now the Caps are full of young talent it was clear "Gabby" wants to keep that pipeline full and I'd expect that the prospects selected for development camp are all psyched to be getting some face time with the Caps head coach. As I stepped into the rink the staff had the group gathered round and was discussing the next set of drills or debriefing the last set. Here's the sight of the entire group B huddled round and Gabby giving some instructions. After this discussion, the next evolution was sprints, this is a cool drill to watch the way the Kettler glass and boards are set up since it looks like the players will be skating right into you, but clearly after an a half or more of on ice time, this is hard work. Most of the guys selected for development camp are pretty big guys, if you look at their stats the shortest is Mathieu Perreault at 5'8" but he's in group A; all of group B is 5'11" or taller so these guys were all big boys. Watching them do the skating drills was pretty neat and it's clear that today the staff wanted to see who was in shape. This last set of sprints clearly got the motors running.

After sprints Gabby again gather the troops and there was some additional instruction and discussion, followed by some stretching and a short passing drill them some basic shooting, apparent open practice. The young players all are clearly intent on hearing every word Coach Boudreau has to say and it was interesting to see who hung around on the ice for as much ice time as they could get - it was primarily the older guys

who played at Hershey and South Carolina last season; another one was Phil DeSimone, who is currently playing at UNH and a little older than a couple of the young prospects right out of Juniors. It got me wondering if these guys were putting in the extra time because they were in better shape and less tired after Day 1, or do they think/know Gabby likes to see both talent AND drive, or do they have both talent AND drive and that's why they're still around after having played for him before, or they were just having more fun than the other guys? This next shot (above) is the last set of on ice coaching the group got from Gabby before the session ended.

Intrasquad scrimmages are scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, as well as the day of FanFest. I might be able to catch FanFest and since I need a fix of live hockey, if I can I'll probably go. However, I'm out of town up at the USMMA tomorrow through Thursday as my son reports to join the class of 2012 - ACTA NON VERBA, baby.

I'm not a totally rabid fan of the "baby caps" so don't know them by face that well, and it was hard to see/catch some of the numbers so if I've got the following names/captions wrong, please let me know so I can correct them.

Michal Neuvirth stretches:

Phil DeSimone in a passing drill, notice his jersey these guys are got a workout today:

Patrick McNeill doing some shooting drills, I know this doesn't look like the photo/headshot on the Caps site but I swear this guys was wearing a number 46 on his helmet so if I'm wrong please shout out. In the meantime - can't wait till next season; LETS GO CAPS! [ED NOTE] I have more pics and may post them over the next couple of days as I'm off in New York.