A little bit of this and a little bit of that on this July Tuesday...
First up, some
accounts from Day 1 of Development Camp from Rink Reader KingClancyKolzig and others on the Caps Message Board, as well as
OFB's first postcard from camp and
Vogs,
Corey and
Katie Carrera of the WaPo.
Sticking with the Development Camp theme, here's
an article on attendee Greg Burke, the Caps
sixth round pick in this year's draft. The Portsmouth, New Hampshire native will be headed to the USHL next season, then it's off to the University of New Hampshire to join fellow Caps prospect
Phil DeSimone (who's also in town for camp) in the Fall of 2009. Of course, Burke, DeSimone,
Dan Dunn,
Andrew Glass and any other current or future collegians who you see out at K-Plex this week are there on their own dime so as to maintain college eligibility.
Karl Alzner? Not so much.
Moving on to the big boys, Rink Reader Rajeev has done
a little number crunching on the Mike Green contract, and thinks the dollars are pretty fair for both sides.
Speaking of statistical analysis,
Allan Ryder of
HockeyAnalytics.com has a monsterous analysis of the past season that you can read
here (warning: PDF; link via
On The Forecheck). If you want my quick summary here it is:
Alex Ovechkin had an incredible season, Mike Green was the most improved player in the game,
Boyd Gordon was the sixth best defensive forward in hockey (and don't sleep on
David Steckel there either), and the Caps defense is a whole hell of a lot better than anyone thinks it is (would you believe best in the Eastern Conference?), which is part of the reason I think
Jose Theodore is in a position to surprise people.
In case you're wondering what
Nicklas Backstrom's up to, he's
playing on a touring charity all-star team with a roster that has more umlauts than Mötley Crüe downing a case of Löwenbräu.
Finally, despite the fact that anything involving both "ESPN" and "hockey" is inherently joke-worthy even
before you add
Justin Timberlake to the mix, be a good fan and
go vote Ovechkin for the Best NHL Player ESPY (
Henrik Zetterberg wasn't one of the five best players in the League this year? Really?).
