Testwuide impressive in rookie debut

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Arriving at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex for his highly anticipated debut in a Flyers jersey, Mike Testwuide pulled his sweater off the hangar and was surprised to find an 'A' for alternate captain sewn on the front.

Ultimately, the Flyers' rookies fell short, 4-3, in their scrimmage with the Washington Capitals' rookies in front of approximately 1,200 fans - but the score or the result didn't much matter.

And Testwuide didn't disappoint in his rookie camp debut. The undrafted rookie out of Colorado College setup the Flyers' first goal in the second period off a 2-on-1 rush with fellow undrafted rookie Ben Holmstrom.

"I thought it was a really good pace," Testwuide said. "It was a little sloppy at times, with guys trying to do too much, but it was a really high paced game with a lot of skill and a lot of intensity."

Eric Wellwood and Marc-Andre Bourdon scored the Flyers' other goals, with Bourdon's coming with just 4:35 remaining to tie the contest at three. Cody Eakin's tally with 1:16 left sunk the Flyers.

Still, Testwuide says he can build off of a contest like this one - even though it didn't count for as much as an NHL exhibition game. Flyers coach Peter Laviolette was on the ice with the Flyers' rookies on Monday explaining the ins and outs of their forecheck and defensive zone play.

"This was the first time that I got to implement the systems that the Flyers have been teaching us," Testwuide said. "It's always good to see it in a game and read and react to the situations, under the systems that they're teaching. It's a great time to implement what their teaching us."

Now, with this in-game experience under his belt, Testwuide and some of the other Flyers' rookies won't feel too out of place when they skate in preseason games next week.

The Flyers' first preseason game is Tuesday night at the Wells Fargo Center against New Jersey.

"It takes a while to get used to new stuff," he admitted. "It's not a complicated system but it's just new stuff."

Slap shots
Zac Rinaldo dropped the gloves with Trevor Bruess, who said before the game that he "wanted to fight a Flyer." Problem was, it wasn't much of a scrap - just some dirty dancing and bear hugging ... The Flyers' rookies wore the team's new road jerseys, also known as the white jersey's from last year's Winter Classic. The jerseys will be officially unveiled Friday as the kick-off of 2010 training camp ... Flyers coaches Peter Laviolette, Craig Berube and Jeff Reese attended the game, along with executives Paul Holmgren, Dave Brown, Don Luce, Chris Pryor and Neil Little ... Former Flyer Riley Cote made his rookie coaching debut ... Defenseman Marc-Andre Bourdon, the rookie team's captain, performed well. His calmness and presence on the blue line - with crisp passes - were a big improvement from last year ... Eric Wellwood, Tye McGinn and Michigan State product Andrew Rowe also had strong games ... Adam Morrison replaced Sergei Bobrovsky in net at the start of the third period and allowed two goals.

SCORING
1st Period
C - 4:30 - Stanislav Galiev, assists Dustin Stevenson, Marcus Johansson. (E)
2nd Period
F - 7:55 - Ben Holmstrom, assist Mike Testwuide. (E)
C - 11:00 - Josh Godfrey, assist Cody Eakin. (PPG)
3rd Period
C - 3:58 - Josh Godfrey (2), assists Dmitry Kugryshev, Marcus Johansson. (PPG)
F - 5:17 - Eric Wellwood, assists Tye McGinn, Erik Gustafsson. (PPG)
F - 15:25 - Marc-Andre Bourdon, assist Ricard Blidstrand. (E)
C - 18:44 - Cody Eakin, unassisted. (E)

Pick up a paper copy of Friday's Daily News for our full Flyers training camp preview, complete with a story on highly anticipated goalie Sergei Bobrovsky's debut.

Until then, follow Frank Seravalli on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DNFlyers.