Jakub Vrana Continues To Impress
Jakub Vrana – Sports-Kings.com
With the Capitals legend Rod Langway, better known as the “Secretary of Defense” in attendance for the second scrimmage, 18 year old Jakub Vrana, was the most impressive. Vrana, who has been lined up with last years Caps first round draft pick Andre Burakovsky, have been a pleasure to watch. A duo that could be paired up together in the NHL in the next few years has so far, wowed Caps fans in attendance at this years Development Camp.
Burakovsky and Vrana are just two pieces to the deadly line that has so far tore up the Capitals Development Camp scrimmages. Their line mate, Left Winger Jan Urbas, is a 25 year old 2014 Sochi Olympian with the Slovenian national hockey team. Urbas, who is a free agent invitee of the Capitals, is in the United States for pretty much the first time in his young career. Newly promoted Washington Post Capitals writer Alex Prewitt wrote a piece about Jan Urbas this morning.
From Left Wing to Right Wing, Urbas, Burakovsky, and Vrana have yet to be shut down by the white squad.
Burakovsky tallied one goal and two assists today as he continued to be experimented at center by the Capitals coaching staff. He scored two goals in yesterday’s scrimmage as well.
Vrana scored two goals and had an assist. One goal came on a great feed from Burakovsky and the other came on a howitzer of a slapshot from the left face-off dot which whizzed right over goaltender Phoenix Copley’s right blocker pad shoulder, a short side goal.
Vrana also assisted on a Zach Sanford goal when his line mates went to the bench and he got stuck on the ice on the attack. Vrana was in the right corner at the goal line and sent a beautiful pass to Sanford who was streaking from the bench to the slot for a quick onetime snapshot goal.
Burakovsky, 19, and Vrana have been nothing short of awesome together. Both are going to be very solid additions to the Capitals in the next few years. Vrana could become a pure scorer because he seems to thoroughly enjoy scoring at the Development Camp. Burakovsky may become a great playmaker with a good scoring touch when he needs it.
Aside from the Burakovsky and Vrana show, the line of Nathan Walker, Chandler Stephenson, and Riley Barber had a great scrimmage again early on for the white team. However, the line was typically matched up against the Urbas-Burakovsky-Vrana line and very much overshadowed by the future stars. That being said, they played as well as they could have against the top prospects and even got another early goal. In the second period, Chandler Stephenson was switched at center with Brian Pinho. Could have been because they were getting torched by Burakovsky and Vrana. I refuse to down grade them for that.
Tomorrow is the Capitals Development Fan Fest and there will surely be a lot of Caps fans in the house. If you need advice on how to manage the events, refer to my Development Camp Guide. I would only add that you get there sooner then what I initially said if you want a decent place to view the game.
