Your savory post-St. Paddy’s Day Sunday brunch links:
- Previews of tonight’s battle with the Blackhawks from Vogs, NHL.com and CRtC, and be sure to check out Second City Hockey for more coverage from the other side of tonight’s match-up.
- The team had a travel day from Winnipeg to Chicago, but there was still action out at Kettler as Nicklas Backstrom suited up for the fifth straight day and skated for 45 minutes. [RMNB (video), miseenjeu (pics)]
- Bears beat reporter Tim Leone observed that goaltender Braden Holtby was packing his Caps gear bag last night and this morning the Caps confirmed – Holtby has been recalled and will join the team in Chicago. [WashCaps, @brguerrero]
- Of note – Hershey goalie Dany Sabourin got both the Friday and Saturday starts for the Bears. [Patriot-News]
- Meanwhile goaltender Billy Sauer has been called up to Hershey from South Carolina. Philipp Grubauer is not available due to his injured hand. [@RaysTheRoofBlog]
- Mark Stuart has been fined the maximum $2,500 for his elbow to Marcus Johansson‘s noggin. [NHL.com, WaPo, Arctic Ice Hockey, PHT]
- Related: “Is this team aware that you don’t have to wait for a player to be traded to Montreal in order to respond to a dirty play on a teammate?” and other points to ponder for this weekend’s games. [BrooksLaichYear]
- A playoff atmosphere, and the ghosts of playoff failures past. [KOL]
- Fenwick and other #fancystats for the Caps under Dale Hunter. [Copper and Blue]
- Power play opportunities are getting fewer and farther between. [WaPo, WashTimes]
- The Evgeny Kuznetsov Saga rolls into its second week with more intrigue and drama:
- Keeping hope alive! [Puck Daddy]
- Traktor management is forced into issuing some denials of its own. [RMNB]
- Congrats are in order for Caps prospect d-man Patrick Wey and the Boston College Eagles, who captured their third straight Hockey East title. [Hockey Hourly]
- Alex Ovechkin‘s NCAA brackets took a bit of a beating in the first round, but hey. Didn’t everyone’s? [Caps B-Ball]
- Operation Alexander Radulov has run afoul of some diplomatic and contractual red tape, and the Predsbloggers take a look back at some past Capitals cloak-and-daggery with Michal Pivonka. [On the Forecheck]
- Finally, happy 28th birthday to Jonas Johansson, happy 34th to Jan Bulis (at press time tied 1-1 in the second period of Game Three of the second round of the Gagarin Cup Playoffs), happy 38th to Brantt Myhres, and happy big 4-0 to Craig Johnson.
