Bourque, Alzner and Laing sent to Hershey

I'm pretty upset that Bourque and Alzner didn't make the team because wavier status, and money. The Caps are trying to win the Stanley Cup this year. Alzner was one of the best 6 defenceman in camp, so he should have a spot on the team. Bourque out-performed a lot of the forwards, and he proved he can be a good NHL player. With that said, here's you 2008-2009 Washington Capitals.

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Kozlov
Laich-Fedorov-Semin
Fleischman-Nylander-Clark
Brashear-Steckel-Bradley
Fehr, Gordon

Morrisonn-Green
Poti-Jurcina
Erskine-Schultz

Theodore
Johnson

Training camp starts today.

I'll be posting updates all day long. The only news I have right now is that Backstrom skated this morning and went through some drills. He was wearing a different colored jersey then everybody else. Yesterday Boudreau said that Backstrom wasn't going to skate, but I guess his ankle was feeling good. Backstrom only skated for about 30 minutes before he left the ice. I don't know if Caps management was just limiting his ice time, or if he re-aggravated it.

Camp rosters announced

Here's the rosters from the Caps website. It'll be good to have Gustafsson and Kugryshev both at rookie camp. I think that's a pretty good team that can compete with the Flyers rookie team.

Another update from informal pratices.

Michael Neuvirth, Eric Fehr, Jakub Cutta, Tomas Fleischman, and Jay Beagle all arrived at Kettler today and they are practicing. Also we have some number changes, Eric Fehr will be wearing #16 this year, he wore #16 when he played in the WHL, and Tomas Fleischman will be taking Fehr's old number 14. So make sure you don't get them confused.

Also Jeff Schultz said that he did a lot of weight training this summer and he says that he has bulked up to 228 lbs. That's 10 more pounds then last year. Remember Schultz is 6'6 so he still has some more room to get stronger.

Numbers at informal practices increase.

Brent Johnson, Jose Theodore, Karl Alzner, Brooks Laich, Boyd Gordon, Nicklas Backstrom, Donald Brashear, Shaone Morrisonn, David Steckel, John Erskine, Chris Clark, Matt Bradley, and Michael Nylander were all skating at Kettler yesterday. That's about half the team, they seem excited to get the season started.

Tarik has an update on Nylander.

Also Backstrom has apparently gotten a hair cut.

Training Camp date announced.

"The Washington Capitals’ 2008 training camp will open Saturday, Sept. 20, at Kettler Capitals Iceplex in Arlington, Va. A group of the team’s young players and prospects will take part in rookie camp the week prior to the start of training camp, with those workouts beginning Sunday, Sept. 14. All on-ice sessions during rookie camp and training camp are open to the public and free of charge."

"Rookie camp will conclude with a game against the Philadelphia Flyers rookies on Thursday, Sept. 18, at 3 p.m. at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. The game will be free of charge but will require a ticket – the Capitals will announce details on obtaining tickets at a later date."

So training camp starts in 59 days, and rookie camp starts in 53 days. The season starts in 79 days.

http://capitals.nhl.com/team/app/?service=page&page=NewsPage&articleid=368902