Have a story coming in tomorrow’s Examiner on Capitals prospect Chris Bourque. The 23-year-old is again fighting for a roster spot. At 5-foot-8, 181 pounds, he is noticably stronger in the early days of training camp and with both F Tomas Fleischmann (blood clot) and Eric Fehr (shoulder surgery) still working their way back into shape, Bourque has a good shot at sticking.
He put together a fine camp last fall, but was one of the last player’s cut. He then responded with 73 points at AHL Hershey and another 21 in the playoffs en route to a Calder Cup title. Bourque even played eight games with the Caps during the season, recording his first NHL goal.
Washington coach Bruce Boudreau noted that Bourque played in six of the seven preseason games last year and said Bourque might see time in all six of this year’s preseason contests. Because of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February, training camp will last just three weeks. That’s not a lot of time to impress the front office before final cuts are made.
“But I don’t think it’s that big a deal,” said Caps general manager George McPhee. “I think it’s kind of a nice thing having depth in all parts of our organization and real good competition. We will be faced with some really tough decisions at the end of this camp.”
Bourque added that the coaching staff has already had plenty of opportunity to evaluate the players fighting for the final roster spots over the last two seasons. Bourque and forwards Quintin Laing and Alexandre Giroux have all spent stretches in Washington over that time.
