Boyd Gordon Inks a Deal

Caps fans will glad to hear the news that fan fave Boyd Gordon, has signed with the team for another fun-filled season! "Gordo" just finished his sixth season with the Capitals and was credited with five goals and nine assists. He was most impressive last season in the face off department, with a 63.3% face off percentage during the playoffs.

And in other hockey happenings, the Hershey Bears have promoted former assistant coach Mark French to head bench boss. Troy Mann has been named the Bears’ new assistant coach and will join French behind the bench as Hershey defends its Calder Cup championship in 2009-10. French replaces Bob Woods, who was promoted to assistant coach in Washington after leading the Bears to the AHL title. He joined the Hershey staff on Jan. 2, 2008, after Woods had been promoted to head coach.

On the other side of the spectrum, rumor has it that Chicago Blackhawks General Manager, Dale Tallon, just joined the ever-growing ranks (can someone do something about this economy already, for the love?) of the unemployed and will be replaced by Stan Bowman, the son of legendary coach Scotty Bowman. Tallon found himself in a bit of a pickle recently after qualifiying offers for several of the teams' key players (Cam Ward and Kris Versteeg among them) weren't mailed out in time. Um, big fat "ooops"!

And yet another rumor is swirling that the Capitals may face the retooled during the off-season Montreal Canadiens in Montreal's ginormous Olympic Stadium (h/t Japer's Rink). The full NHL schedule is slated to be released tomorrow. Not that Hockey Mom can plan anything around that, as we won't have the boys' hockey schedule anytime soon. But I'll have great fun pencilling the entire thing into my date book (no, I don't have a Crackberry yet - still working on that one).

So the Capitals' prospects version of "America's Got Talent" continues today at the Capital's 2009 Development Camp. Capitals' draft picks will be put through the paces (including the infamous "bag skate") by Gabby and his staff to evaluate their progress. HM heard some twittering that several of the prospects dined on Chinese food court fare yesterday - that would not have been pretty should they have actually required a barf bag after the brutal on-ice drills. I am hoping to get down to Kettler Capitals Iceplex this weekend to catch the tail end of camp, but in the meantime, prospects Braden Holtby and Trevor Buess will be "tweeting" about their own Development Camp experiences all week at twitter.com/washcaps.