Your savory breakfast links:
- Previews of today’s 3pm matinee meetup with the Sabres from Vogs, NHL.com, CBSSports.com and Peerless, be sure to check in with our SB Nation pals over at Die By The Blade for the other side of today’s matchup.
- The Wizards played at the Verizon Center yesterday, in a game that was halted twice when water started raining from the ceiling onto the court. Presumably this problem will be fully resolved by puck drop. [Deadspin, PBT]
- There’s a bit of roster drama extant for both teams:
- Buffalo is expecting to have Cody Hodgson and Ville Leino returning from injury and back in the lineup for this game. To make room for the vets, they reassigned Mikhail Grigorenko to his QMJHL junior team the Quebec Remparts, but he has declined to report. Oh my. [DBTB, Buffalo News, Puck Daddy]
- And for Washington, the goalie question hasn’t got any easier to answer. [CSNW]
- Your Capitals Minute for today. [Capitals Voice]
- News and notes from practice out at Kettler:
- In general. [Monumental video (Oates, Fehr, Brouwer, Carlson, Alzner, Rinkside Update/Green)]
- Hello you must be going – Michael Latta was reactivated from LTIR and reassigned to Hershey, where he suited up for Saturday’s tilt against Springfield and finished with two assists and a +2 rating in a 5-3 victory. [Caps Today, PHT, Patriot-News, SHoE]
- Huzzah! Mikhail Grabovski‘s agent is in town and has begun discussions with the Caps on a contract extension. “It is not easy process. It will take some time I believe,” says Gary Greenstin. “Most likely he’ll stay here.” [WaPo, NBC4, CSNW]
- Eric Fehr has stepped up his game and is gaining the respect and trust of his coach, as measured by ice time and responsibilities. [WaPo]
- Alex Ovechkin made another scoring milestone with his two-point game against Toronto – those were his 780th and 781st NHL points, which took him past Pavel Bure (799) and into a tie with Alexei Yashin for 8th place overall among all Russians in the NHL. Next on the list – Sergei Gonchar with 787 and Pavel Datsyuk with 799. [Sportbox.ru]
- There is nothing better than watching the Make-a-Wish kids have their dreams come true. Little 8-year-old Braden Nienaber, in his #21 sweater and bright yellow laces, got to score on Braden Holtby, fight with Tom Wilson, and chill in the dressing room with Brooks Laich. Tomorrow he tours the VC with Ovi. [WUSA9, Capitals Hill, RMNB, Instagram]
- A few leftovers from #CapsLeafs:
- For the Leafs, the #fancystats finally caught up to team management’s lying eyes. [WaPo]
- Leafs superfan/megablogger Steve Dangle was all fired up to see Grabo set up Ovi for a goal. And he was super impressed to see Colton Orr unpack Moti and Vation to inspire the Leafs to victory… or not. [TheLeafsNation (video)]
- Also all fired up – Karl Alzner. And then Don Cherry. [RMNB, and again]
- Ready, chirp, fire. How the fights went down. [Caps Outsider]
- A show of hands, right and left, for the Caps’ front office. [NYT]
- Free free, set them free. [Capitals Hill]
- Happy 36th birthday to Josef Boumedienne, happy 53rd to Daryl Evans, and happy 47th to Ulf Dahlen.
- Finally, enjoy these 41 superb pictures from yesterday’s practice, which, if the swirling rumo(u)rs are proven right, might well be the last time we see Martin Erat in a Caps kit. [Capitals Hill, @CapitalsHill]
