Varlamov to Hershey

The Washington Capitals have reassigned 20 year old goalie Simeon Varlamov.

Varlamov made his NHL debut in the hardest arena in hockey, Montreal, stopping 32 of 33 shots to earn his first NHL win.  Then last night, Varlamov stopped 29 of 31 shots to life the Capitals to a 4-2 win over St. Louis.

Today — Varlamov is heading North on Interstate 83 back to Hershey.  Gotta admit, I am sad to see this happen.  I think the kid is NHL ready, or at the very least, deserves a helluva longer look after what he displayed in Montreal and then again in DC last night.

“At this time, right now, we have two healthy goalies and he needs to play a lot, not just once in a blue moon,” Boudreau said. “He needs to get the whole back-to-back thing down because he gets really tired after games. We’re really happy with him, but Hershey plays three times this weekend and he’ll get a chance to play in maybe two of them.”

McPhee added: “One of the things European goalies have to adjust to in their first year in North America is playing a lot of games. He expends a lot of energy in a game. He has to learn to be ready to be able to not only be ready to play the next night. Right now, he expends so much, he’s drained the next day.”