Now the Fun Begins

As if a preseason finale win over the Rangers or a packed inaugural convention wasn't enough, now the Caps have this to ponder: a regular-season date Thursday in Boston along with some roster trimmings.

Chris Bourque, who is fighting for a spot, had a pretty good outing today and now has to hope that limited action (due to an injury) has convinced the powers that be that he should make the team (which I would endorse).

"He looks like he plays with energy all the time," Coach Bruce Boudreau said. "He scored a goal. Other than one play up the middle, I thought he competed pretty hard."

Those roster decisions must be made by 3 p.m. Wednesday -- as does the fate of Michael Nylander, who did not see action in any preseason contest.

"We'll meet tomorrow with the coaches. We have an idea where we're going with this. It's not an exact science," Boudreau said. "We're going to try to see what the best fit for our team is. It might not be necessarily that the best players stay, but it might be what the best fit is for our team."

Here would be my opening day line-up (keeping in mind that Eric Fehr and Tomas Fleischmann are hurt):

Ovechkin-Backstrom-Knuble
Semin-B. Morrison-Laich
Bourque-Aucoin-Clark
Bradley-Steckel-Laing

Green-S. Morrisonn
Pothier-Alzner
Poti-Erskine

Varlamov
Theodore

Some other great convention recaps:

* Dump and Chase
* Ted's Take
* Versus
* Musings of a Hockey Mom
* Cap Centre
* A View from the Cheap Seats
* Rock the Red
* On Frozen Blog