On Frozen Blog

Today’s contest will be between the blue and white teams, and there will be refs, who get booed as soon as they hit the ice.
Ha! #33 is Chris McAllister, and I am heartened by the fact that the scrimmage features names and numbers on the sweaters. That should make life a lot easier.
Alex Ovechkin is on team white, btw. Alexander Semin is on team blue. Neuvirth is the White goalie, and Olie Kolzig is the goalie for the blue squad.
Real, live, competitive, veteran hockey. FINALLY.

Correction, it’s not Olie in net for blue, it’s Cassivi. Sutherby and Laich start things off, both using their skates for board redirects of the puck. Nylander provides some dangle, and in the best play so far, Semin and Fleischmann combine for a tic-tac-toe scoring chance that Neuvirth pushes aside. Advantage White, early.
First hit of the game is Werner on Wilson, putting Wilson halfway into the white bench.
Bouchard hits Sloan at the far end boards, then later Pothier finds Bouchard with a home run pass, Cassivi with the one-on-one save.
In the offensive zone, Laich looks to center, but Kozlov pushes him rudely to the ice with one hand. Beagle tries to beat Neuvirth gloveside on a two on one, no deal.
Sorry for the gap in coverage, having some technical issues.
Nylander makes a nice pass to Barney, who pots it, and Blue leads one to nil.Semin and Nylander on the same line for the moment, and they hold the puck in the zone for a solid 20 seconds between them. There’s a pleasantly surprising amount of hitting, with guys playing the body with aplomb. Despite the score being 1 – 0, there’s a fire-wagon hockey flow to the game.
Brian Sutherby has looked pretty mobile today, carrying the puck into the zone and showing some agility. Werner gets a breakaway starting at his own blueline, but Hunt catches him and stops a good scoring chance. Neuvirth stops Werner’s shot.
And it’s one to nothing at the end of the 1st half, with Team Blue in the lead on a Barney goal from Nylander.
Milan Jurcina briefly sits in the middle of the white bench, then stretches and moves to the ice. Milan’s on Team Blue, btw. Nylander and Ovechkin jostle good-naturedly as the teams set up for the second half.
Pinozotto feeds Wilson (?) in front for a shorthanded goal, and it’s tied up at one.
Ovechkin dekes Sloan out of his socks and gets a shot on net.
Neuvirth is watching from the bench, as the Nameless Goalies have replaced both he and Cassivi for the second half. The scrimamge has shifted a bit, with the team working on man-up and man-down situations. Stephen Werner splits two defenders at the neutral zone…barely. Michael Nylander loops several times to kill the man-down. Ovechkin is being used as a PKer for team white, which probably means nothing in the long-term.
Nylander gains the zone on the man-up and drops for Semin, who waits to feed a cutting Jurcina with a saucer pass, which is a bit off. Nice-looking play, though. I’m trying to remember the last time a Caps’ dman did a backdoor cut on the power play who wasn’t named Gonchar. Stephen Werner reverses the puck behind the net, then feeds Beagle in the slot. The rebound goes to the off-side winger, who pots it for a goal. Tomas Fleischmann then shows some good quickness, taking the puck to the crease past one defender, though the second defender poke the puck away.
Semin tries to get a bit cute at the offensive blueline to hold the puck for support, but Lepisto pick-pockets him cleanly to start a rush the other way.
Off a White rush, Kyle Wilson snaps a wrister past Nameless Goalie Blue, and the score is now tied at two.
Jamie Hunt picks up the puck from the back boards and dishes a head-man pass to Poultny, who doesn’t even know the puck is there until he turns his head to the left. He drops it back to Hunt for a shot on cage. On the other end, Poti works the puck down low and over to Werner, who dishes to Barney for a scoring chance. Laich tries a wraparound, and then is plastered along the glass by McAllister.
Sutherby clocks Hunt along the defensive boards, then on the other end The Sarge pots one, and Team White takes a 3 – 2 lead with 5+ minutes left.
The goal of the day is scored as Ovechkin collects a slow pass to him at the offensive blueline, draws two defenders to him, then dishes to Joe Motzko, who forehand-backhand-forehands Nameless Goalie Blue. Appreciateive “Oooh”s and “Ahhh”s are heard.
Shaone Morrisonn has brought the puck up three or four times today, I wonder if that’s something he’s looking to work on this camp. Sutherby gains the zone then passes to McNeill, who has his wrist shot stopped and covered by Nameless Goalie White. Later, Nylander loops once in the neutral zone, then splits Team White down the middle for a close-in PP scoring chance. Continuing, Semin and Nylander set up in the zone with Semin with the puck. Nylander taps his stick once. Twice. And Semin passes to him. They reverse.
5 seconds left. Final score, 4 – 2 White team. Both teams gather around near center ice to receive final instructions, then they head to the far blueline for sprints.
Usual disclaimer: saying who looked good in a practice and scrimmage is more or less pointless. That in mind, the players who caught my eye were Shaone Morrisonn, Milan Jurcina, Jamie Hunt, and Brian Sutherby.