You can compare Sid to Ovechkin as much as you want. Maybe at the end of their careers, Ovechkin's going to have more points. Good for him. Sidney's going to win more Stanley Cups. That makes him the better player, the better leader." - Maxime Talbot ( From Empty Netters)

Impressive. If only he could learn to fight? or act?

I'm sure Pens fans wouldn't like this logic when I bring up Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemeuix.

So with the " Nylander Saga" possibly coming to an end the Caps may be looking at some very nice salary cap space. This obviously puts them in a great position especially given the cap situation of some of the other strong teams in the East ( Philly/Boston).

So I began to wonder what the Caps would do with this money and wanted your thoughts as well.

It's very possible that GMGM would sit on this money until the deadline. Looking at this team I can't see much ( on paper) that we would need. Every teams wants/needs that tough-experienced-rugged Dman of course and that's where I think the money goes but not until the deadline.

The Caps could bring up Alzner but given the log jam on the blueline and the (pretty) strong play of Mo and Juice- I'm not so sure. Even if they sent Sloan down, they wouldnt bring up Alzner to be the 7th/8th d-man. And as stated before, besides Erskine who do you move?

So what do you think? Are we making a move the day we get that "cash" ?....or do we wait until the deadline? When we do make the move, what are we getting?

I went down to Training Camp today. Here are some random observations and a bunch of photos I took.

Group A did drills early in the morning while B and C scrimmaged at 12.

Giroux seemed a lot bigger then I remembered. He worked with Semin and Brendan Mo today. Semin and Mo had some nice passes between the two and didn't look awful together. 

Nylander showed a lot of hesitance. They were typical things like skating up to the blueline (with the puck) and instead of going in or dumping it he would just circle back into the neutral zone causing either offsides or a turnover. He was really bad in corners just circling back and getting manhandled or again turning over the puck. Early on he had some nice chances and even shot the puck once or twice. Overall though, it was pretty rough to watch.

During the scrimmage Bruce and some of the prospects sat in the bleachers. At one point Nylander had an awful turnover and I looked over and Bruce was just shaking his head.

Laing looked strong and confident. Coming into camp I really thought Bourque would get that last spot but it seems like Laing might have the inside edge early in camp.

The defense is really hard to tell and I don't envy the decisions ahead for the coaching staff/McPhee. It will probably (again) come down to numbers$$$.

If I had to take an absolute stab in the dark based on only two days of camp, this would be my guess at opening night..

Ovy Back Knuble

Giroux Morr Semin

Laich Steckel Clark

Laing Gordo Brads

Poti Schultz

Green Mo

Pothier Erskine

SexyJose

Varly

Scratches

Nylander

Juice

IR/DTD

Fehr

Flash ( Giroux taking his spot on the lineup)

One random story: A guy drove from Hershey today to not only see Camp but to get this Varlamov jersey signed for his disabled brother ( who apparently loves varly). Well Joe B overheard all this and did his best to get Varly to come out and sign the jersey. In the end Joe B came through and this kid got his brother's jersey signed by Varly. Pretty cool. He left for Hershey pretty happy.

LASTLY,

Here's a link for the photos I took. They aren't edited and I barely know how to use my camera!

Just a quick note.

Alex scored his 50th goal as a rookie in Atlanta as well as his 60th last year. With Monday's match up in Atlanta, he could certainly score his 50th again at Phillips Arena.

Ovechkin hitting 50 isn't "earth-shattering" nor does it break any records. However, it's still a great accomplishment.

Given these accomplishments plus some of the games he's had at Phillips Arena (the OT winner right off the faceoff resulting in a hat trick, last year's comeback victory), it's kind of funny it keeps happening in front of Thrasher fans.

Just some fun useless trivia for you.