Development Camp final scrimmage — what a finale!

Sadly, the 2008 summer dev camp has come to an end.

But it ended with a flourish — a scrimmage played to a 2-2 draw, followed by a five minute OT, followed still by a best-of-five shootout (which, itself, featured a scintillating backwards, spin-o-rama backhand score by former Q-league scoring champion François Bouchard on Dan Dunn).

If you weren’t at Kettler today, you simply missed out on a great time.

The opening draw

Check out the portly linesman at the face-off circle

But if you’re reading this post, I’m guessing that you probably made it out to the rink this morning. If so, you may have been astonished, and delighted (as I was), to witness the extraordinary turnout. Bleachers full-to-near collapse, and standing room jam-packed, with the Capitals faithful. Balcony teeming with still more fans. And around the rink glass — two rows deep of standing observers.

And plenty of local media as well. Which led Coach Bruce to exclaim, jokingly, while walking through the scrum this morning: “Look at these hordes of media!”

I think he said “hordes” and not something else that sounds like “hordes.” Well, anyway.

Varlamov looks on from the bench during the 3rd period (he started the scrimmage today)

Final minute of regulation in a 2-2 tie!

For as good of a play-by-play recap of today’s scrimmage as I can find, check out OFB’s live blog from this morning.

After tearful and passionate goodbye embraces (uh, in my mind, that is) with fellow bloggers, Tarik, and Mike Vogel, I sauntered upstairs and joined the hordes of another sort, waiting in line for the equipment sale.

Seriously, though, this long-distance fan enjoyed himself immensely during these last three days in Ballston.  I can’t thank enough Caps media relations staffers Nate Ewell and Paul Rovnak for giving me the exciting opportunity to meet and chat with the campers. They’re class acts, the face of a classy organization. And they’ve got the “trophy case” to prove it.

And the aforementioned Mike Vogel, and Brett “Stretch” Leonhardt, are both as clever and engaging in person as they are on the Capitals Report.

Not being a season ticket holder with early access to the equipment sale, by 1 pm I had my pick of, oh, several dozen lefty sticks, and a few remaining practice jerseys from the scrimmage. But I still came away a happy camper with Jake Hauswirth’s white sweater and ‘08 draftee Stefan Della Rovere’s blue, the latter still plenty damp from play. Sweet.

Wait, Jake who? He was a camp invitee who surprised many folks here. He plays USHL junior for the Omaha Lancers, and will suit up for Michigan Tech in 2009. He and Andrew Gordon were linemates for much of the scrimmage today and Thursday, and played quite well together.