Boyd Has The Right Attitude, But He'll Learn.

In sports interviews, players routinely drool out so many streams of the same cliches that experienced reporters often don't even bother attending. It was for this reason that Washington Post sent hockey-beat newcomer Shermar Woods to talk to prospect Travis Boyd today at development camp, while I followed Post hockey writer Katie Carrera's lead and stayed home.

Woods did a great job and got an unusual quote from this year's sixth round pick, Travis Boyd. Boyd told Woods that he's just having fun, playing some hockey and not worrying about making the Capitals lineup.

After falling asleep reading through daily Cody Eakin interviews where the hopeful fifth line center tells us again and again about his drive, determination and competitiveness to make a team that added three outside veterans this summer and totally doesn't need him, it's nice to see someone who understands the lay of the land and isn't worried about it.

Additionally, Boyd should not worry about making the Capitals. If he did play in the NHL this year, he'd lose his eligibility to play for the Minnesota Golden Gophers, a team that developed current NHL players like Phil Kessel, Blake Wheeler, Erik Johnson, Alex Goligoski. He's already graduated from the US National Development Team, which has helped train Johnson, Patrick Kane, James Van Riemsdyk and forty other NHL players.

While a sixth round pick normally has less than a snowball's chance in Atlanta of making the NHL, Travis Boyd is in very good company. He obviously needs to give every chance to play hockey his full attention and learn all that he can, but it's refreshing for once to hear someone who isn't going to make the NHL acknowledge that fact and put it in a positive light.

Incidentally, another former Golden Gopher who has a way-outside chance of making the Caps out of training camp is Ryan Potulny. Potulny has mostly played in the AHL and is likely to end up in Hershey this year, but he put up fifteen goals with Edmonton in 09-10 and has a total of 49 points in 126 games. If Boyd can follow a similar development path, he will greatly exceed the expectations of a typical sixth round draft pick. If not, no one will be surprised or disappointed, so why shouldn't he have fun along the way?