Your savory breakfast links:

• Previews of tonight's Game 1 with the Rangers from Vogs, NHL.com (Lozo), RtR and CRtC, and be sure to check out our SB Nation partner Blueshirt Banter for more coverage from the other side of tonight's match-up and throughout the series.
• Notes and assorted whatnot from yesterday's practice:
  
  • In general. [Caps365 (video), CI (Carrera), 106.7 The Fan (Kerstein), bridgetds (pics)]
  • To the surprise of no one (with the possible exception of Semyon Varlamov's Russian agent), Michal Neuvirth was named Game 1 starter and is cool as a cucumber. [ESPN (Burnside), WaPo (Wang)]
  • Mike Green says he's playing. Bruce Boudreau says he's a "game-time decision." Bruce Boudreau is playing games. [CW (Whyno), DCEx (McNally), CI (Wang)]
  • Bit of a surprising news reported by TSN's Darren Dreger that Dennis Wideman wasn't released from the hospital until Monday of this week. [CW (Whyno)]
  • From Rangers practice, some bytes from John Tortorella. [Ranger Rants]
• A must-read on "the 'E' word" (and no, it's not "Eminger").  [Dump 'n Chase]
• Classic coming-of-age tale, these Caps. (We hope.) [WashTimes (Daly)]
• Jason Arnott is not just a man, he's the man. [WaPo (Wise)]
• In case you hadn't heard, the Caps play some defense nowadays and their captain's cool with that. [NHL.com (Masisak), WaPo (Svrluga), AP, Globe and Mail (Duhatschek), NYT, The National]
• How to stop Alex Ovechkin. (What, no foreward by Joe Corvo?) [WSJ]
• What didn't kill the Caps has made them stronger. (We hope, Part 2.) [NHL.com (Masisak)]
• The series could come down to how good Henrik Lundqvist is. [WaPo (El-Bashir), WSJ]
• Five Caps who are on the spot. [CSN Washington (O'Halloran), with a focus on two of them in the Calgary Sun and one singled out at PHT; five more names at DCEx]
• Series previews from those who know the Caps best. [Capitals (Vogel), WashTimes (Whyno), WaPo (Carrera)]
• The Rangers are young. [Ranger Rants]
• Alexander Semin... speaks?! [CW (Whyno)]
• A final round of predictions:
  • Caps win. [Everybody who writes for NHL.com, Elliotte Friedman, SB Nation, 14 local media folks including yours truly, Puckhead]
    
  • Caps in five. [Peerless, Empty Netters, Baltimore Sports Report]
  • Caps in five-and-a-half. [RMNB, The Checking Line]
  • Caps in six. [Puck Daddy, SB Nation DC, HotH, Hockey Independent (Scriven), Kurtenblog (hey, I'm allowed to average), StC, Ball Hogs Radio, Leader-Post, USA Today (Allen), OFB]
  • Caps in seven. [ESPN (Hradek), AP (Podell)]
  • Rangers in seven. [ESPN (La Greca), Puck Prospectus]