Exhibition Home Opener Comments

My tickets are behind the visiting goalie so I can watch the Alex's in action, so I had only one period to observe the D close up. The Alex's are clearly ramping up but are not yet in full playing from. Green was definitely impressive, and was constantly opening up the ice for the offense. Particularly impressive was a powerplay shift where the Russians were all on the ice with laser precision passing. I noticed Backstrom has a pretty serious problem in terms of his size and being able to stay on the puck. He was not tossed around like Semin is but it is clear that he will be even better once he matures and gains some more bulk.

Though he let in two goals, Ward made some amazing saves and definitely kept the Canes in the game. Ward gets back into position with amazing speed and his efforts to slim down and get faster over the sumer after a marginal year last year have paid off.

HD Extravaganza and Home Whites

Went to the game last night and the new scoreboard is impressive. Even the clock and the scoring data is digital. So clear and sharp it is actually a little annoying, but a nice problem to have. The advertising is not up on the boards yet, which gives the feel of a game from the early 80's.

I have heard two separate statements about home and away uniforms. For whatever reason, the Caps were wearing their white jerseys last night. The alleged road uniforms look sharp with the blue shorts, that is for sure.

Not a big crowd but not bad. Both Goat, the incredibly loud guy Goat and the horn guy were there, whic is no surprise.

Varlamov's Career Over Before Starting

The message board sophisticates have spoken and Varlamov is done. GMGM should probably trade him now while there is still some value, maybe a couple of 7th rounders in '15. For those apparently unaware of Varlamov's stellar performance in the RSL, it seems better to judge Varlamov on a 3 games instead. Let's review some facts before we trade Varlamov:

1. Varlamov is playing behind a defensively challenged Russian team.

2. That is really saying something given the lack of interest in playing defense in Russia.

3. Varlamov is playing against the best Junior team on the planet.

What this needs to be viewed as is a great learning experience. Varlamov is learning how to deal with a meltdown. Also he has some technical issues to work, which are also a good thing, because itshows that he has come to this point on raw talent and has tremedous upside. He is young, the whole point is for him to get all of these problems out of the way for Russia, Hershey, his RSL team, whatever, as long as it doesn't happen for the Capitals.

Let's give the kid, and he is a kid, a break.

HF Rates the Caps Prospects

Hockey's Future just published their top 20 rankings for the Washington Capitals today. Backstrom, Alzer, Fehr were the top 3. The surpise was Keith Seabrook being rated ahead of Jeff Schultz. Keep in mind HF considers upside in their ratings so Schultz may still be the more NHL ready of the two.

Would Varlamov be rated over Neuvirth if the analyst had watched the latest game in the Super Series?