Your savory breakfast links:
- Miss anything over the weekend? We’ve got you covered.
- ‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even… the NHL and the players, who still aren’t talking to each other. Silent night, indeed. [Globe and Mail]
- Festivus may be behind us, but there are still plenty of grievances to be shared, whether you’re Jason Chimera or a hockey writer trying to hold it all together. [Denver Post, NJ.com, Deadspin, CBS Sports, PHT]
- Dear NHL: when the head of the KHL is able to call you egotistical, it might be time to take a step back and reevaluate a few things. [rian.ru]
- A beacon of light in this grim, hockeyless world is the annual IIHF World Junior Championships, which officially get underway this Wednesday:
- Everything you need to know about this year’s tournament. [SI.com, Globe and Mail]
- Defending champ Sweden has unveiled its final roster for this year’s WJC, and it should come as a surprise to no one that it features Caps’ prospect Filip Forsberg. [NHL.com]
- Meanwhile the US team is still working on getting that roster down to 23 for the tournament… [USA Hockey, USoH]
- …and will have to do so on the heels of a pretty lopsided exhibition loss to Team Finland. [WCHB, USoH]
- Thanks to some (relative) success in recent years, Caps’ prospect pool has been a bit more shallow than it may have been in the past – but there are still some blue chip kids waiting in the wings. [HF]
- Down on the farm, the Hershey Bears went a stellar 9-for-9 on the penalty kill against the Springfield Falcons… only to lose 1-0 on a shorthanded goal. Of course. [Patriot-News, LD News]
- Locked-out players keep on keepin’ on…
- A few final thoughts on Matt Hendricks and his recent USO Holiday Tour [Caps Outsider]
- More on last Friday’s awesome shinny game at Kettler between some of the current Caps and local college players. [CSNW]
- “Ovechkin is a beast! split the puck ;-)” Couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Also, wowza. [@dynamo_ru]
- Caps fans trolling Tim Thomas may have only clocked in at #10 on Puck Daddy’s best fan moments of 2012, but it’s #1 in my heart. [Puck Daddy]
- Love to write? Love the Caps? Love to write about the Caps? DC Sports Nexus might just be looking for you. [DCSN]
- Finally, you know you want to go vote for us. You know how to vote, don’t you? Just point the mouse and…click. [WaPo]