“Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” -Ferris Bueller
Training camp, like life, moves pretty fast. Less than 48 hours since the drop of the puck in Hershey’s first preseason game and just six days since the Chocolate and White took to the ice for training camp, it all wraps up today at Giant Center with the final preseason tune-up against the Norfolk Admirals. Face-off is set for 5:00 p.m., with general admission tickets still available at the door.
Lead-off note of the day comes from my kitchen table here in Elizabethtown from my wife Julie. As she was home last night while we were off to Wilkes-Barre, she was flipping through the channels on TV and passed through Horse Racing TV on our Comcast box. What was staring back at her were the race results from the 9th race at Remington Park, a track in Oklahoma City. (I promise, I’m going somewhere with this.) The name of the horse that won the 9th race at Remington Park last night? Marq French. The link with the proof, click the link and click on the 9th race to see the full result. http://tinyurl.com/yc5f4de The moral of the story? Always bet on Marq French…
Elsewhere, in more hard-hitting news today…
Dress rehearsal: It will be a very familiar lineup to Bears fans on Sunday, with most of Hershey’s regulars skating today. Some of them, such as Jay Beagle, Andrew Gordon, Boyd Kane, Kyle Wilson and Bryan Helmer, will be playing a preseason game for the first time this fall with the Bears. Jason Bacashihua, who started Friday’s preseason tilt against the Penguins, will draw the nod today as well with Todd Ford backing up.
Ten assigned Saturday to Norfolk: The Admirals received 10 players yesterday from its parent club Tampa Bay. Returning to the Norfolk roster from last season are goaltender Riku Helenius, defensemen Vladimir Mihalik and Ty Wishart, and forwards Blair Jones, Juraj Simek and Paul Szczechura. Goaltenders Jaroslav Janus and Dustin Tokarski and forwards Martins Karsums and Dana Tyrell have also been assigned to the Admirals. Tokarski is likely to see a lot of time for the Ads in goal this season, should be interesting to see if he plays today.
Caps in action Sunday: The final preseason game for Washington also takes place today in D.C. against the New York Rangers. According to Corey Masisak of the Washington Times, the line combos for today are:
Ovechkin-Backstrom-Knuble
Laich-Morrison-Semin
Bourque-Steckel-Bradley
Laing-Gordon-Sugden
Schultz-Green
Erskine-Poti
Sloan-Pothier
Note that Alexandre Giroux and Keith Aucoin are not in today. Aucoin seems to be in a position to claim a roster spot after his very good preseason. Giroux’s status is a little murkier heading into cutdowns this week one would think. A lot more to come this week on the roster front, both here in central PA and in Arlington.
