Your savory breakfast links:

• Historical precedence for turning what happened last week into something good. [Dump n' Chase]
• Elliotte Friedman does his autopsy and it's as good as any you'll read from outside D.C. (and better than most you'll read from inside the Beltway). [CBC]
  
• Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury discuss why the Caps failed. There are some decent points in there, but to place the blame squarely on the defense, as Milbury does, is a bit of a head-scratcher. [PHT]
• Puck Daddy and Steve Kouleas do the same, except it's smarter (caveat: "smarter" does not necessarily apply to anything voiced by anyone other than Wyshynski in the video). [The Score]
• RMNB's take. [RMNB]
• "Washington simply had the most extreme run of bad luck imaginable - shooting 1-for-88 on the PP, even if you don't screen the goalie, is extremely unlikely.  If we assume that Washington's power-play shooting percentage is merely average, the odds of doing it are about 1-in-800." ... "[T]he issue here was simply bad luck for Washington in the shooting department." If only it were that easy. [BtN and BtN]
• Don Cherry on the Caps' net presence and some craziness. [CapsBlog]
• The Caps continue to be compared to the early-'80s Oilers, which I suppose is good. [Matheson]
• Some leftover media-day pics. [dfndr13 on Flickr]
• Rink Wraps kick-off later this morning, so be sure to check back.
• Finally, it's a big day for birthdays as we fete Rod Langway's 53rd, Jeff Halpern's 34th and Robbie Moore's 56th (two captains and a dude who played 20 minutes for the team).