Your savory breakfast links:
- Real hockey is being played today, believe it or not. The puck drops at 11am Eastern at Megasport Arena in Moscow, where Nick Backstrom and Marcus Johansson will suit up for Tre Kronor to take on Alex Ovechkin and Team Russia in the first match of the Channel One Cup stage of the EuroTour.
- AO is slotted at left wing on the third line with Alexei Tereschenko at center and Nikolai Zherdev on the right. And he says he’s fine with that. Just. Fine. [Gazeta.ru (photos)]
- Here’s a fairly illuminating interview with Russia head coach Zinetula Bilyaletdinov. Of note – Sasha Semin didn’t get an invite on grounds of poor conditioning, Ovi’s centerman is coming off a somewhat long-term injury, and Coach Bill considers Evgeny Kuznetsov to be a right wing. Not mentioned – Russia would really, really like to have Semyon Varlamov available, but he’s hurt, and otherwise occupied. [hcsalavat.ru, via teh googletrans]
- The latest labor-related news, non-news and assorted whatnot:
- That worked well: Federal mediators and a super-sekrit undisclosed location provided impetus for … not much. [Fire & Ice, CSNW]
- Wanted: Brinksmanship. [CBC.ca]
- Your move, owners. [Sportsnet]
- Give me three steps, give me three steps, baby, give me three steps towards accord. [@DamoSpin]
- What’s with the amnesty ambivalence? [Backhand Shelf, CSNW]
- They read Clips, obvi: How are NHL GMs monitoring their overseas players? [Puck Daddy]
- Keeping busy, keeping on, and keeping the home fires burning:
- Peter Puck … [CBC.ca]
- … Craig Laughlin … [Facebook]
- … and Matt Hendricks. [@MattHendy26, Melodika.net]
- A ray of light in this cold, dark place – could the Euro players be looking for their passports and checking flight times? [Puck Daddy]
- Hershey’s #1 goalie achieved victories #70 (get it?) and #71 in a two-game Newfoundland sweep of the St. John’s IceCaps, which means Braden Holtby has now tied Phil Sauve for #7 in all-time wins for a Chocolatetown netminder. He also saved 62 of 63 shots in those two games. [Patriot-News, Stack the Pads, SHoE]
- WHITE HOCKEY PANTS ALERT!!!! … [Icethetics]
- … or not. Drat. [Patriot-News]
- Catching up with 2008 6th-rounder Greg Burke, currently in his senior year at UNH. [THW]
- Tom Wilson has survived the first round of cuts at Team Canada camp in Calgary. The team must whittle its roster from 31 players to 23 by … sometime today. [TSN]
- Finally, happy 27th birthday to Andrew Gordon, happy 37th to Bates Battaglia, happy 43rd to Sergei Fedorov, and happy 78th to Doug Mohns, and a very happy birthday to our pal Paul Rovnak. Cheers, gentlemen!