ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2014 In between on-ice training at the Capitals\u2019 2025 Rookie Camp in Annapolis, Md, the team\u2019s prospects made time for some friendly competition. During a day off from skating on Saturday, players took part in an obstacle course at the US Naval Academy, clambering through a series of challenges to beat each other\u2019s times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said that was the easiest course, so \u2014 I couldn\u2019t feel my arms after,\u201d said Ryan Leonard. \u201cHats off to those guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Capitals posted footage of Leonard and Cam Allen racing the gamut, which included hurdles, hanging bars, and balancing tricks before a final rope climb.<\/p>\n
\u201cCam and Leno did pretty good,\u201d 2024 first-round pick Terik Parascak said of the pair\u2019s performance. \u201cSaw they raced each other a couple times and they looked pretty good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI did great, and then I didn\u2019t do great on the ropes,\u201d Leonard joked. \u201cWhen I got to the rope, I kind of got stuck. I couldn\u2019t really grasp the whole, \u2018get your feet into a knot and not really use all your arms.\u2019 Those Navy guys looked like gymnasts when they were doing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said it to a couple people, \u2018Those guys don\u2019t really get enough respect for how strong they are and what they do every day for this country,\u2019 but it was so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither Leonard nor Allen, however, came out on top in the competition. That honor went to Ryan Chesley, who completed the course in a team-leading 1:10.<\/p>\n
\u201cI actually did pretty good,\u201d Chesley said of the experience. \u201cI don\u2019t want to brag or anything\u2026I picked up the rope climb pretty quick, and that helped me a lot. It felt like I got the technique down, so that helped my time for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the course is generally used for Naval training, it offered the Capitals prospects both a fun distraction from the on-ice work of rookie camp and an opportunity to get to know each other better. 2024 second-round pick Leon Muggli emphasized the benefits those off-ice activities could have down the road: by the time the prospects are ready for the NHL, they\u2019ll have already cemented bonds with their future teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s really important to just get to know the guys, even go out for dinner together,\u201d Muggli said. \u201cI mean, it\u2019s a team sport. You have to know each other and that\u2019s really good for it, yeah\u2026 You know the guy before you\u2019re going to war with (him), so you\u2019re willing to battle for the guy next to you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it just gives us all an opportunity to hang out away from the rink and do something different that we\u2019re all not used to and just hang out as a group together,\u201d Parascak added. \u201cIt was just a good time, just to hang out, fool around a little bit, and just do something fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
After wrapping up Rookie Camp on Monday in Annapolis, the prospects will have a few days to prepare before the Capitals\u2019 on-ice Training Camp activities kick off on Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANNAPOLIS, MD \u2014 In between on-ice training at the Capitals\u2019 2025 Rookie Camp in Annapolis, Md, the team\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-159139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}