The hardest test of Washington Capitals training camp arrives at the end of the first day, conducted on ice still sliced up from practice, hardly ideal conditions for a speed skate. It begins with a blasted whistle and a clicked stopwatch. Thirty-eight seconds for the first run — down and back, down and back, finish at center ice — and 41 seconds for the next two, two more awaiting those who missed the mark.
“It’s pretty fun,” defenseman Karl Alzner said.
Seriously? All those practice trials conducted over the summer while preparing for a new hockey season, even though they never could quite mimic the real thing?