A nice surprise

It's always rewarding when you watch a player develop his game and make the jump to the NHL. Three years ago, before Portland Pirates games, I'd encourage Washington's Tomas Fleischmann to shoot the puck more often.

This morning, as he signed these two pucks, I told him he's come a long way since those fall and winter days outside the Cumberland County Civic Center.

"Yes, it has," he told me. "I'm shooting the puck, too."