Your savory breakfast links:
- Some unsurprising results – and some surprising ones – have set up the final eight teams as the quarterfinals get underway from Sochi. [AP, Puck Daddy, CSNW (Russia/Norway, Czech/Slovakia), RMNB]
- You might have missed it (what were you doing, sleeping??) but in the wee hours of the morning, Sweden faced off against Slovenia and they… won 5-0 to advance. [NHL.com]
- Meanwhile Alex Ovechkin and friends take on Finland first thing this morning after downing Norway yesterday. [NHL.com]
- It’ll be John Carlson against Martin Erat as the Czech Republic attempts to take down Team USA. [NHL.com, SI, USoH, CSNW]
- Rounding out the quartet of games, it’s Canada vs. hockey superpower… Latvia. [NHL.com, ESPN]
- Juggling the ol’ lines has Chris Kunitz back on a line with Sidney Crosby. Because on a team of all stars, only Kunitz can keep up with Sid. Obviously. [NHL.com]
- Russia may have advanced to the quarterfinals, but they haven’t exactly looked dominant in any of their games and are amazingly still looking for consistent offense. [SI.com, NHL.com, BHS]
- Speaking of which… where have you gone, Alex Ovechkin? [PuckRant, RMNB]
- Meanwhile Ovechkin didn’t get a turn in the shootout on Saturday, which was surprising only to people who never actually watch Caps gam-…oh hi, Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon! [WaPo]
- Since the NHL began playing in the Olympics in 1998, no team that swept the preliminary round went on to win a gold medal. So Canada, USA, Sweden… thanks for coming. [Yahoo!]
- Five ways hockey at the 2014 Olympics has been different from NHL hockey. [BHS]
- It’s still up in the air as to whether the NHL will return to the Olympics in 2018 – and if they don’t go, it could be a problem. [DSP]
- Remember that rule that wiped Russia’s go-ahead goal off the scoreboard on Saturday? Yeah, it’s being changed. Better now than a week ago, right? [Puck Daddy]
- Comparing Carolina’s Justin Faulk to the rest of Team USA’s defensive corps. [Shutdown Line]
- Buy or sell that the Caps are buyers… or sellers? The Two Dudes hash it out over a couple of cold ones. [Rink]
- Your Capitals Minute for today. [Capitals Voice]
- As the Olympic tournament heads into the home stretch, the rest of the League is headed home, as practices officially resume today. [NHL.com]
- The Caps have a couple of sharp-shooting defensemen on their blueline these days – but they used to have two of the best. [Hockey-Graphs]
