I don't usually get to the morning skate on game days, but I felt compelled to go to this one. I actually wanted the opportunity to get some photos of the Capitals from ice level and not from the top of the coliseum. Morning skates are usually pretty boring if you're not involved in the interviews afterward, and as I really like don't stepping on toes, I left the interviews to the professionals and stayed in the stands.

Notes you already know about tonight's game:

Doug Weight is still out with the flu. (Good. Let him stay at home and not infect anyone else.)
Roloson will make the start. (He was working with Sudsie this morning.
Gervais back in, Meyer out.
Robbie Schremp sits on the sidelines again.
Semin out for the Caps, Theodore in net.
Ovechikin will be Ovechkin and Tom Poti has a black eye.

Okay then. Other notes you won't get from anyone else:

The Caps took the ice at the coliseum and looked like they didn't have a care in the world. They wer rlaxing on the bench, chatting, laughing. I do believe they are taking the Isles for granted.

Ovechkin skated around and batted the puck like a playful kitten and not the man who was just fined for slewfooting a fellow NHLer.

I was the only one with a credential sitting out there watching the Caps skate. I worried I wasn't supposed to be there or something. Then I searched the arena and noticed Goalie Coach Sudsie was watching carefully from the 200s. He was soon joined by Assistant Coach Scott Allen.

While #19 Backstrom looks like a very young Jason Blake, #23 Jurcina looks sort of like Big Bird.

I didnt' see Boudreau on the ice, but then again maybe I'm just blind.

Ovechkin let's out these little "Woo Woo!" chants some times as he circles close to the boards. Very interesting.

The tape to tape passing drills they did were orchestrated by the Tweet Tweet of a whistle. It wasn't quite as annoying or ear piercing as Paul Maurice's whistle that he used when I saw him coach the Maple Leafs. (No wonder Jason Blake and Maurice didn't get along. I wanted to shove that whistle down his throat myself, and I wasn't even skating.)

Although they had only hit the ice at about 11:26, by 11:47 Ovechkin was already off. Guess when you are Gr8, you don't have to stay out for the entire practice. Or maybe he had 15 interviews and a magazine cover to shoot.

I was sitting across from someone from the Caps front office when one of their media guys came to sit with him. It was interesting to hear him make a snide remark about being in "LawnG Island" as he called it. Yeah, tell me again the arena DOESN'T MATTER!

I had a feeling Robbie Schremp would be out of the line-up for tonight because when I left, I found him standing in the tunnel in his underarmour looking out at the ice and watching the Caps players skate.

Hockey players WANT to play. It's what they do. When they know they WON'T be playing, it's very hard for them.

So, while Scott Gordon had a very LOUD practice this morning working on power plays and such, the Caps looked like it was open skate at the Rinx.

I'm hoping they are underestimating the Islanders. That way... maybe they will surprise them.

Islanders will be on MSG Plus tonight while the Devils will be on MSG Plus plus times five. Let's see how the Devils fans like not being able to find the channel or watching the game through tissue paper. Thanks Cablevision!

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