Your savory breakfast links:
- Previews of a rematch of a disappointing November loss from Vogs, Peerless and NHL.com, and be sure to check out our SB Nation partner Silver Seven for coverage from the other side of tonight’s match up.
- A few Sens notes of note. [CBC]
- Brian Pothier is expected to play tonight (and more notes). [Washington Post]
- Sizing up the David Steckel and Tyler Sloan contract extensions. [Loose Pucks]
- Thoughtful note on the Karl Alzner demotion: “Alzner, who shoots left, played the right side of the ice with Erskine. I would have liked to have seen how he would do when paired with a better skater or paired with a right handed shot so he can play his natural left side, such as Brian Pothier.” Amen. [Ed Frankovic’s Blog]
- Much more coverage of Alex Ovechkin being named Caps captain from D.C. Sports Bog, Peerless, OFB, Fight For Old DC and StC, and a sweet captaincy-related fail.
- AO and the new face of Russian hockey. [NewsChannel 8 (text and video)]
- Michael Farber‘s mid-season awards implicitly acknowledge that the Caps are more than a couple of individuals, but rather a solid team, I suppose. [SI]
- Pierre LeBrun‘s half-way hardware isn’t all as laughable as his Hart winner, but I won’t blame you if you stop reading there. [ESPN]
- And another variation on the same theme. [NHL.com]
- Still more mid-season awards (last one, I swear) and some numbers (bet you didn’t know that Alexander Semin tied for the League lead in plus-minus in December). [TSN]
- I lied. [CBC]
- Feliz Navidad, comrades! [Alex Ovetjkin]
- Quote of the day, in response to @nateewell jokingly asking @EricFehr16 why he voted for Semin to wear the C: “Because his blocked shot against San Jose just shows how great of a leader he is!” It’d be even funnier if Fehr had more than two more blocked shots than Semin.
- A little Laich… for the ladies. [TTT Hockey]
- For those of you jonesin’ to see Semyon Varlamov in action, here are a couple of pics from his start in Hershey – they’ll have to do for now. [Stack the Pads]
- American hero John Carlson talks to ESPN… [ESPN]
- … while bloggers and journos bask in the red, white and blue glory… [OFB, Loose Pucks, Patriot-News]
- … his former coach and GM (rhymes with “punter”) chime in on the big goal… [London Free Press]
- … and Facebook does what Facebook does. [Facebook]
- Per the HHoF, on this date back in 1989, “Washington’s Mike Ridley became just the fourth NHL player to assist on all six of his team’s goals in a game (and set a Capitals‘ team record for most assists in one game) in a 6-3 win against the Blackhawks.” Rids’ record still stands, but what are the odds that Nicklas Backstrom ties it some day? I’ll set it at 3:1.
- Finally, happy 54th birthday to Mike Liut, happy 44th to Randy Burridge, and happy 38th to the one and only Donald Brashear.