With the kind of camp he's having, the dog pound might have to relocate from the 200 level at GIANT Center to the District of Columbia sometime soon. In a dominant 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Flyers Friday night, guess who was named the number three star of the game? Yep, it was Jay Beagle. With two hits and two shots on goal last night, he earned some high praise after the game from head coach Bruce Boudreau on WashCaps.com “I like that guy; he plays with a lot of energy,” says Boudreau. “He’s already becoming a bit of a fan favorite. So it’s great when you have those options. For a few years, I don’t know if we had those options here. The depth of the organization at forward is really good right now.” No doubt about that. Beagle has been assigned to Hershey this Saturday morning, but he's not expected to play tonight against Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. From what I hear, there's a decent chance he might head back to Washington Sunday for the exhibition game against Boston. It may not be Jay's time right now in the District, but it would seem that he's getting closer to living out his NHL dream.

As for the BEARS Friday night, it's a great night anytime you can go to Wachovia Arena and win, even if it doesn't count for anything. Our first look of Oskar Osala gave us a pretty good glimpse I think of what to expect on the left side this season. He's big, he isn't afraid to shoot the puck and he scored a goal against David Brown last night in the first period.

The defensive corps did a pretty good job last night, considering the Pens played a ton of guys that will start the regular season next Wednesday. The penalty kill got a great test last night facing Chris Minard, Dave Gove and Connor James. That's their top line you have to think, and at least Minard was frustrated all night long out there. A nice win with just a home game tonight to finish out the preseason.

I saw Graham Mink after the game last night walking out to the bus. The gash he got late in the third period from a teammate's stick left needed to be stitched up across his forehead. But he was in good humor about the whole thing. "I know what I'm going to be for Halloween now" Mink said. "Put a couple of bolts in my neck and I'm Frankenstein."

I gotta tell you, I can't wait for Wednesday night. I want to see what this team can do when the games start to count. Tickets for tonight's preseason finale are just $7 if you're coming out in person, otherwise I'll have the call at 6:55 on www.sportsjuice.com. I'll have more on this later, but all games starting with last night's tilt at Wilkes-Barre will be able to be archived and listened to anytime on Sportsjuice. So if you miss the game or want to hear something from a home game you were at later when you get home, you'll be able to do that this season. I'll have more on that later on. For now, it's off to practice...