Caps prospect Cody Eakin didn’t look quite himself at rookie development camp last week. He missed some quality scoring chances. He seemed to get muscled out of the faceoff circle at times by Mattias Sjogren, technically a fellow prospect, but at age 23 a far more experienced one. But expecting Eakin to dominate a camp against some pretty stiff competition probably wasn’t realistic. We are talking about a 20-year-old coming off a long playoff run to the Memorial Cup finals during his final season in juniors.
“Sometimes we forget: [Eakin] just finished playing [six] weeks ago,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said. “This is his third camp and I thought he competed hard. But I think he’ll be better in September. Hockey’s such a draining sport to keep going at the same level that you’ve been at for 12 months is difficult.”
Eakin didn’t let himself off the hook in his post-scrimmage chat with reporters on Saturday.
“I felt like I progressed. I’m not in the best shape,” Eakin said. “There’s no excuse for it, but I had a good exit meeting [with the coaches] to discuss what I need to do. And like I said, I progressed and I think that’s the most important thing.”
His goal for the next six weeks is to regain some of that strength and be ready to go for a second rookie development camp in Washington in September and then the main training camp. Eakin’s final game for Kootenay was on May 27. He did attempt to get away from the sport for three weeks, spending some time at a lake house in Manitoba. Eakin will return to his hometown of Winnipeg and work with his longtime trainers, adding elements of a program from Caps strength and conditioning coach Mark Nemish.
Seems unlikely Eakin will start the 2011-12 season in Washington unless he clearly earns a top-12 forward spot at training camp. No need to have a prospect playing once a week in the NHL when he could get all the ice time he needs at AHL Hershey. One thing’s for sure – this is the last you’ll see of him at the July prospect camp. Eakin in ready for the real thing.
“It’s repetitive. But at the same time you take a look out there today and every skate and every drill you’re forced to work as hard as you can because there’s guys trying to push for the same thing,” Eakin said. “And the competition is huge even in the summer camp. I think the guys really did a great job of pushing each other and the games are fast and not a lot of room and high tempo. It’s pretty hard.”
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