On Frozen Blog

8 minutes until the official start of training camp, and already there are plenty of skaters out on the ‘Office Side’ rink. Broken up into color groups, there’s just a general warm-up going on right now. There is to be a scrimmage at 11:30 which should be the highlight of the day, and we’ll try to get that covered for you.
Dressed in a burnt umber appear to be the defensemen, with Jurcina, Morrisonn, Pothier, Hunt, Lepisto, Schultz, #33 and Pollock. Bouchard, Ovechkin and the very smooth Viktor Kozlov. The Blue group includes Clymer, Steckel, and Brashear. The white group is Motzko, Andrew Gordon, and #57. The Maroon group is #54 and Pinozzoto. We’ll try to clear up the numbers for you when we can.
The whistle goes, and the camp is officially underway, a wearing drill with the defensemen feeding the forward lines. So far, a few fumbled pucks. Maybe they are excited, too.

10:34 #33 is a big fella, whomever he is. I want to guess that it’s Chris McAllister, but he’s listed as #76.
Two laps, on to a two-on-none drill. Neuvirth is at the far end of the ice, while the goalie at the near end has a blank mask and nondescript pads. Machesney, maybe? Kozlov beats the nameless goalie high glove side. The first “Oooh” of the day from the crowd. Pinozotto does, too. Neuvirth calmly gloves a shot from the slot.
Just a note on the names, nobody has name sweaters on, so I’m trying to find out the numbers on the back of the helmet, the only identifiers for the players. I’ll be updating and correcting as we go.
Forward line vs. a defense pairing, now. The Maroon players put together a nice goal, taking the puck around #33, the getting it through Neuvirth’s pads. Kozlov with a slot pass to Ovechkin for a wrister, and Bouchard cleans up the rebound for a goal.
Karl Alzner, not dressed, signs an autograph. Backstrom watches from the corner, as well. Looks like seven to ten players, including Backstrom and Alzner, are just spectators this session. Pokulok is in that group, as well. And Chris Bourque.
Decent crowd, though they’ve roped of our usual perch for the band from this morning’s festivities. Several new sweaters seen around, more white than red.
First hit of the day is thrown as Pollock hipchecks someone along the boards. The Caps transition to a two-on-two half sheet of ice drill (lengthwise).
Shaone Morrisonn looks a bit bigger to me.
The vets get no different treatment from the rookies in the sense that they get to do the 2 laps after every drill, as well. At one point, the sound of Ovechkin’s wrister hitting the back glass scares the heck out of two attendees who weren’t paying attention. At another point, a deflected Ovechkin shot hits the glass where a photographer was attempting to take a shot, causing an involuntary flinch from the shutterbug.
The goalies have swapped ends, and I’m getting a better look at Neuvirth, who seems to be sharp. Neuvirth steers aside an Ovechkin offering, and then gobbles up a point-blank Bouchard shot going glove-high.
Sam the Horn Guy is in attendance, shout out, and George McPhee and Doug Yingst take in the proceedings from the observation deck. The practice session ends, the Zam gets to work, and I’m told that the scrimmage will take place on this surface as well, so I don’t have to move.
Again, it’s made plain that the lines/groupings/pairings/what have you mean nothing in the long-term scale of things. Though you probably couldn’t see Bouchard on that.
Also, the Nameless Goalie is just that, for now. It’s not Machesney, Kolzig, or Johnson. We’ll try to get more on the Masked Man’s identity.
The scrimmage is due to start in a few minutes, and it looks like there will be two 25 minute periods. No word on refs yet.
For those who asked, Ovechkin’s skating looks good, and he certainly has full power in his shot.