Your savory breakfast links:
- Our own Stephen Pepper sat down with EPIX Executive Producer Ross Greenburg to talk about the Caps and the “Road to the NHL Winter Classic.” [Rink]
- Braden Holtby breaks out the Winter Classic bucket and pays homage to a Caps legend. [Rink]
- Another good week for the team means another good week for our assessments of ’em. [Rink]
- Recaps and other assorted musings on last night’s win from us, Vogs, Monumental video (Trotz, Holtby, Backstrom, Green, Beagle), NHL.com, WaPo (gamer, blog), CSNW (gamer, blog), Frankovic, RMNB, Stars and Sticks and BrooksLaichyear.
- The goals, in audio form. [Capitals Voice (Beagle, Backstrom)]
- Sick save, B. [RMNB]
- Sick month, really. [CSNW, The Hockey News]
- But not his best run ever. From Elias: “Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby made 38 saves in his 2-1 win against the Ottawa Senators. Holtby lost his first game this month (Dec. 2 vs. Vancouver) but he’s 7-0-2 with a 1.75 goals-against average in nine games since then, matching his longest previous streak of consecutive decisions without a regulation loss in the NHL. Holtby posted an 8-0-1 mark (and a 1.01 GAA) over a nine-game stretch in 2010-11 (Jan. 20-March 26), his first season in the league.”
- In-game, the Caps honored one of the best, Peter Bondra. [Monumental (video)]
- Previews of tonight’s big game in the Big Apple from Vogs, NHL.com and Peerless, and check out our SB Nation partners over at Blueshirt Banter for the other side of tonight’s match-up.
- Updates from yesterday’s morning skate:
- In general. [Monumental video (Trotz, Ward, Burakovsky), Dump ‘N Chase]
- The Caps recalled Andre Burakovsky and Aaron Volpatti yesterday (and immediately placed the latter on IR). [WaPo, CSNW]
- Back to tonight’s starter, no decision was made as of yesterday’s skate. [WaPo]
- More Winter Classic stuff:
- More on Holtby’s equipment… [Monumental (video), WaPo, CSNW, RMNB]
- … and a few words from the inspiration himself (well, not Uncle Sam, but you know what I mean). [Capitals Hill]
- NObama. [RMNB, Puck Daddy, WaPo]
- Ooooh… someone drew a picture of what it might look like next week… [CSNW]
- … and how it’s actually coming along. [NHL.com]
- What you need to know before you go. [NBC4]
- Should I get in the hot tub? (Yeah!) Will it make me sweat? (Yeah!) Should I get in the hot tub? (Yeah!) Will it make me wet? (Yeah!) Well, well, well… [RMNB, Puck Daddy]
- What does CSNW have planned leading up to the Classic? [PuckBuddys]
- Still more. [NBC4 (video), RMNB]
- The Mike Green renaissance is real. [Express]
- The power, it is ranked. [ESPN, The Hockey News, SB Nation, The Score]
- Michael Latta is chipping in. [NHL.com]
- On Barry Trotz‘s handling of his younger players… [Stars and Sticks]
- … and not-so-young players. [RMNB]
- Projecting the All-Stars (i.e. which Caps won’t get to go sun themselves for a weekend). [NHL.com]
- The Caps are spreading holiday cheer because it’s the holidays and they’re cheerful. [D.C. Sports Bog]
- Neat trick when you title your article “Alex Ovechkin isn’t to blame for all Capitals’ failures” and end it with “the clock on having the most disappointing career is ticking.” [NJ.com]
- Braden Holtby is underrated… [Stars and Sticks]
- … and a possible future goal-scorer. [CSNW]
- Down a level, Philipp Grubauer is hot. [Patriot-News]
- Remember that time that Mike Ribeiro did that good thing? [On The Forecheck]
- Finally, happy 32nd birthday to Shaone Morrisonn.