Marcus Johansson grabs a thirst-quencher during day one of Rookie Camp

The past couple of hockey seasons, Alexander Ovechkin has played the role of gracious host at his Arlington home for the organization’s young Russian prospects. He will likely do so again this fall, offering home-cooked meals, sight-seeing excursions, that sort of thing. With the arrival this autumn of a modest contingent of young Swedes for rookie and training camps, Nicklas Backstrom is playing a similar role with his younger countrymen.

Back in July, during Capitals’ Development Camp, Backstrom offered his apartment to Marcus Johansson, the team’s first-round pick from 2009, and regularly checked in on the first-year pro to see how he was navigating his first extended stay in Washington and immersion in pro hockey in North America. Last week, he arranged a special outing not long after a Swedish contingent of first-round picks arrived from overseas.

Anton Gustafsson and Marcus Johansson arrived in D.C. last week, and one of their first orders of business in town was taking in Monday night’s headliner of a college football game at FedEx Field, between Virginia Tech and Boise State, tickets for which Backstrom secured. Backstrom has been something of a fixture at FedEx Field for Redskins’ games, even serving as a field reporter there for Comcast. And he’s been part of a football-uniformed contingent of Caps who’ve lined up for field goal tries at the field. So it’s natural he’d share his new sports passion with his newly arrived countrymen.

For Gustafsson and Johansson, the outing represented their first-ever glimpse of American football.

“It was awesome,” Johansson said after Sunday morning’s first skate of the 2010 Capitals’ Rookie Camp. “You never get to see something like that in Sweden. It was really loud. We wanted to sit up high [in the stadium] and see everything. I understood most of the rules.”

Johansson has quickly taken a liking to his new home, the American capital. Backstrom has shown him around town a bit, and he’s also taken a guided tour.

“It’s not the kind of big city I thought it would be,” the soon-to-be 20-year-old center said, alluding to the absence of skyscrapers in the District. “But I love it.”

All told, we could see the names of a dozen Americans called in round one.

Need additional evidence of the ascendancy of American puck development? Well, it sure is appropriate that tonight’s draft is being held in L.A., because we could see two Californians — center prospect Emerson Etem and right wing Beau Bennett — go in round one. Wow.

• The best goalie in the 2010 Entry Draft is American Jack Campbell, who backstopped two American national teams to gold medals — including the Under-20s in Saskatoon in January — before turning 18. He has all the markings of being a franchise netminder in the NHL, and it’s incredible to think that he could compete still in two more World Under-20 tourneys.

• There is some urgency for the Caps to get it right with pick no. 26 tonight. They will not be getting help from a handful of recent first rounders whose development has stalled or who have been undone by injuries — Sasha Pokulok, Joe Finley, and Anton Gustafsson — and by virtue of recent trade deadline acquisitions have dealt away second round selections this year and next. The Caps tonight will pick at 26, 86, 116, 142 (from Phoenix for Sami Lepisto), and 176.

• Don’t look for the Caps to move up much from pick 26 — that’s just not their MO. Precisely because of recent success achieved deeper in the first round (John Carlson, Mike Green, Marcus Johansson) the team is comfortable finding quality passed over by teams drafting ahead of them.

• Tinordi could be there for the Caps at 26, and were he selected by the team there would be immediate comparisons with the Anton Gustafsson selection. But Gustafsson was a real reach at no. 21 in the 2008 draft. (Worse, some NHL clubs didn’t even have him anywhere on their draft boards.)  Tinordi conversely is a solid first-round talent, and he will be the first Marylander ever selected in the first round.

• The good news is that the Capitals’ scouting regime in recent years has achieved the rare ability to uncover notable talent in those portions of the draft that typically deliver little more than warm bodies. “Our staff has gotten better in recent years,” general manager George McPhee told Mike Vogel yesterday. “I think we’ve been very good the last four or five years.”

• Where are the Caps today with their draft assets, quality depth in development, and their plausible maturation into contributing NHLers? They are in solid shape I think, but again because of some recent strikeouts up high and some selection holes created by recent trades, the team needs to do well tonight. I see terrific quality and depth in goal; good talent but a lack of size at center; and the need to secure some high-end talent on the right side at forward. After the graduation this fall of John Carlson and Karl Alzner there will be a good deal less depth of talent developing for the blueline.

• “The Hockey News: “Canada and the USA provide the filet mignon of the draft, while Russia, Sweden and Finland offer some prime rib. As for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, they are hamburger with an emphasis on helper.”

Here are the photos, courtesy of Chanuck:

As with previous Development Camps, we expect this roster to be supplemneted a bit in the coming days, especially with some local talents. Camp schedule can be found here.

Capitals welcome second Gustafsson

“The scene has played out more than once in the Gustafsson household. The Swedish family sits down for a meal, and the father, who played in the NHL and coaches the national team, and his son, a burgeoning hockey talent, inevitably start discussing their craft.

“My younger sister throws down her plate and stands up and says, ‘Only thing you can talk about is hockey,’” Anton Gustafsson said. “She gets so pissed off. Mom gets pretty pissed off, too. It is usually about hockey. [My father] is always asking me about players and stuff like that.”

Caps have no fear of NHL’s Red Scare

“A new Red Scare is sweeping across the NHL, but don’t count the Washington Capitals among the teams fretting with concern.

“Between the formation of the new Kontinental Hockey League with its deep-pocketed owners and the eroded relations between the NHL and the Russian Hockey Federation, many teams are becoming increasingly wary of investing high draft picks on young players from that country . . .¬†

“Despite their own issues with keeping Russian players on this side of the pond, the Caps are not going to shy away from drafting a player if Moscow or St. Petersburg shows up on his passport.”

Carlson impresses in camp

“So instead of spending his summer reveling in his new status as a first-round pick, Carlson went to work. He added to his off-ice workouts. He played more hockey. He spent 10 days with other top American prospects at a camp for players who might make the national team for the world junior championships.

“He also showed up a few weeks early in London, Ontario, where he will play for former Caps great Dale Hunter in the Ontario Hockey League. The result – when other campers struggled to survive the conditioning on the first day, Carlson had little trouble.

“The skate he did in the beginning there were probably four or five guys that got through it and it didn’t seem to bother him one bit,” Caps assistant coach Jay Leach said. “I was pretty impressed with that.”