Cody Eakin scored with a little over a minute remaining and Josh Godfrey scored twice, leading the Washington Capitals rookies over the Philadelphia Flyers rookies, 4-3, before a packed house at Kettler-Capitals Iceplex.

John Carlson, Jeff Schultz and other Hershey Bears & Caps watching GOAL!

Many of the Capitals varsity -- and much of the Hershey Bears roster -- stood at the far end of the practice rink watching the affair, with Caps coach Bruce Boudreau and General Manager George McPhee watching from the landing off the Caps offices.

Much of the first period was spent in the Caps' end, and there were plenty of bumps being thrown both ways.  But mid-way through, Marcus Johansson sent a backhand pass into the crease that was tipped, then stuffed under Flyers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky by Stanislav Galiev.

The second period started with Trevor Bruess keeping his word and getting into a scuffle with Zac Renaldo, and he took an extra two-minute roughing call.  The Caps killed that penalty, but the rest of the period was filled with Flyers penalties.  Unfortunately, Philly scored on the first Caps PP, as Ben Holstrom beat Philipp Grubauer on a shorthanded breakaway to tie the game at one.

Trevor Bruess

Brandon Anderson relieved Grubauer at the 9:19 mark of the second.

Brandon Anderson

With one minute remaining in the period, the Capitals broke the tie, as Godfrey got his first of the game, on a feed from Eakin in close.

The power plays continued for the Caps in the third, and Godfrey hit again, on a big slapshot from the high slot, off a feed from Dmitry Kugryshev, pushing the lead to 3-1 with 15 minutes left in the game.  Johannson picked up his second assist on the play.

Josh Godfrey

The Flyers made a game of it though, beating Anderson twice, on goals by Eric Wellwood and Marc-Andre Bourdon.

But with 1:16 remaining, Eakin gained control of a bouncing puck and snuck it past Flyers goalie Adam Morrison for the game winner.

Cody Eakin

CAPS NEWS NETWORK THREE STARS

*** Josh Godfrey.  Two big goals, lacks concentration on defense.

**   Cody Eakin.  Was all over the place in the offensive zone.  Gets knocked off the puck a lot though.

*     Marcus Johansson.  Easily the best player on the sheet today.  Makes passes none of the other rookies see or can handle.  Skating ability off he charts.

Honorable Mentions:  Grubauer played very well in his half-game and Stan Galiev was strong up front too.  Hat tip to Bruess for mixing it up after telling the media he would.  Joe Finley was invisible most of the day, and declined several offers to get physical.

Dustin Stevenson and Marcus Johansson

Anton Gustafsson

Philipp Grubauer

Full house!

Center Eric Belanger, now a former Washington Capital, signed a one-year free agent contract with the Phoenix Coyotes for $750,000 Tuesday.  The deal surprised a lot of folks after early-summer rumors of his return to D.C. 

Apparently, the whole thing surprised Belanger and his agent as well, as they believed they had a verbal agreement for a one-year, $1.85 million contract.

Belanger, and his representitive Joe Tacopina, believes the Caps backed out of a deal because they were not able to complete a trade they wanted to make before announcing Belanger's signing.

First, as any lawyer will tell you, a deal is not a deal until it's a deal.

Second, thank goodness whatever the hold up was happened, since it saves the Caps a ton on salary cap room.

It's easy to understand Belanger's frustration, since he already found a house to rent and put his kids in school in the area.  It's a tough business some times.  But his agent really is at fault here, allowing his client to make those arrangements absent a signed, announced deal. 

It's the agent's responsibility to protect his client, not the organization.

Belanger misses the opportunity to play for a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, but will probably spend time on Phoenix' top line and power-play unit, so he has a chance to put up some numbers and have another payday next off-season.  Just don't expect his agent to solicit any offers from George McPhee.

Storming the Crease, one of the credentialed blogs that provides excellent coverage of the Washington Capitals, is profiling fellow Caps and hockey bloggers leading up to the start of the season.

Today was our turn.  Please visit STC to check out our profile and all the others he's posted so far.  It gives you a good idea why bloggers and internet writers do what they do.

Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic announced today that Lisa Hillary, their Washington Capitals beat reporter for the last three seasons, will leave the D.C. beat and join Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.

From the press release: 

After serving as the Capitals television beat reporter for Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic for three seasons, Hillary joins Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia to lead their television news coverage of the Flyers. A veteran hockey reporter, she joined the network in July 2007 following a lengthy career as a reporter and anchor with several major television outlets in Canada, where she spent time covering the NHL for two national sports networks, The Sports Network (TSN) and The Score. A graduate of Algonquin College, she also spent time as a news anchor for Ottawa’s A-Channel.

Veteran D.C. television reporter Jill Sorenson will resume the duties as the Capitals beat reporter for CSN-MA that she has previously held. 

Sorenson, a longtime Washington-area sports journalist, returns to the role of Capitals television beat reporter after serving as an anchor and reporter for Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic for five years. Sorenson, who led the network’s coverage of the Capitals from 2005 to 2007, spent four years as the Capitals beat reporter for WRC-TV (NBC) from 2000 to 2004, where she served as a sports anchor and reporter. A graduate of Brown University, Sorenson also spent time as a news reporter for WTTG-TV (FOX) in Washington, D.C. and as a as a sports anchor and reporter for WDIO-TV (ABC) in Duluth, Minn.

Best wishes to Lisa Hillary in her transition, and best of luck to Jill Sorenson on her new (old) duties.

According to this report by James Mirtle, the "mystery team" that signed C Eric Belanger is indeed the team he last played for, the Washington Capitals, to a one-year, $1.85 million contract.  The salary is a slight raise from the $1.75 million Belanger made last season. 

The report also says the reason Belanger was instructed not to reveal the team was that Washington did not want him to announce it for fear of complicating another deal they had in the works, potentially moving a forward in exchange for a defenseman.

Belanger had 15 goals and 26 assists in 77 games last season between Minnesota and D.C.

The report also links the Caps with free agent D Willie Mitchell yet again, who has recovered from his concussion sustained at the end of last season.  Mitchell remains another possibility to bolster the Caps devensive corps.

The Belanger deal certainly opens up the idea once again that C/RW Tomas Fleischmann could be the moving part in this equation.  Flash had moments of brilliance last season shrouded in a fog of playing a new position and the extended Olympic break. 

But the memory of his complete disappearance in the opening round loss to the Montreal Canadiens has to linger in the mind of GM George McPhee and Coach Bruce Boudreau.

McPhee did well by signing Fleischmann before arbitration to protect his asset, but Flash seems to have fallen into a "square peg" situation, much like Michael Nylander before him.  Both players are obviously talented, but either misfit for the style or position asked of him.

Tarik El-Bashir, Washington Capitals beat writer, will move on to cover Georgetown Basketball and NASCAR, among other assignments. Katie Carrera, who wrote high school sports and assisted Tarik on the Caps beat will take over.

Best of luck to both in their new assignments.

Unless something extraordinary happens over the weekend, next Wednesday, July 28, Tomas Fleischmann, his agent, Rich Evans, and the Washington Capitals will meet with an arbitrator to determine the forward's compensation for the 2010-2011 season.

Flash missed the first 11 games of the 2009-2010 season recovering from a blood clot in his leg, and when he returned he immediately showed off his skills, posting 14 goals in his first 25 games.  He could not sustain that torrid pace, and only netted nine in the team's last 44 games, before disappearing in the playoffs, where he had one point in Games 1-6 against Montreal and was scratched for Game 7.

The 26-year old forward -- and we'll call him a forward for now since that is one of the points of contention -- feels like he should be paid like a prominent No. 2 center, which is precisely an area of need for this Capitals team. 

Fleischmann had some success in the pivot last season -- he had some of his finer offensive outputs at center.  But his face-off technique (43.1%) and defensive skills still leave too much to be desired to seriously consider him "the answer" at 2/C.  And then there's the complicating factor of his playoff performance, or lack thereof.

Would the Caps seriously consider a candidate at second-line center as a free agent if he had been left off his team's playoff roster for a Game 7?  Probably not.

It's no secret Flash is popular with his coaches and amongst his teammates.  By all accounts, he's the type of guy you want in the room.  But is he going to take the next step -- and more importantly, should he be paid like it before he gets there?

It's an interesting question, and only GM George McPhee can make that determination.

McPhee was able to come to deals with the team's other RFAs, inking Jeff Schultz and Eric Fehr to multi-year deals and Boyd Gordon to a one-year deal, avoiding arbitration with those players.  If McPhee is willing to allow the Fleischmann negotiations to go to the arbiter, it could be telling that he believes the player needs another "show me" year.

Or worse.  If McPhee is willing to go through the arduous process and risk being forced to -- in his mind -- overpay for Fleischmann's services, perhaps McPhee doesn't see the player as part of the eventual equation and is willing to live with the consequences for this season.

This strategy is risky in itself.  Say Fleischmann does take the "next step" this season, settles into the second line center spot and puts himself in position for not just a nice salary, but a HUGE raise after next season.  With the impending free agency of Alex Semin as well, would exellent performance by the pair actually be a distraction for the Capitals as they chase Lord Stanley's Cup next spring?

McPhee might have tipped his hand already by not acquiring a veteran second line center via free agency this off-season.  It looks more and more every day like the slot will be filled by someone in-house.  There is no shortage of candidates, but all are seriously flawed in some manner.

In addition to Fleischmann, Mathieu Perrault and Marcus Johansson are both options to helm the second pivot.  But Perrault, despite his 50 points in 56 games with AHL Hershey and nine points in 21 games with the big club, is very undersized to compete with the elite centers of the NHL.  And Johansson, who had a tremendous development camp by all accounts, is just 20 years old and has never played on North American soil.

Of course, Coach Bruce Boudreau could turn back to old reliable, Brooks Laich.  But he'd much rather keep Laich on a wing, where he can get into the crease and create havoc without some of the defensive responsibility at center.

It's a curious situation all around.  How Fleischmann's contract works out could go a long way in telling us what McPhee really thinks of the situation.  But even then, it won't give us all the answers.

One thing we do know:  McPhee wasn't impressed with the free agent options, or he could have already eliminated this headache.