Your savory breakfast links:
- Previews of tonight’s visit from our old friend John Tortorella and the Canucks from Vogs, NHL.com, WTOP, Peerless and AP, and be sure to check out our SB Nation pals over at Nucks Misconduct for the other side of tonight’s matchup.
- The Canucks will be without forward Ryan Kesler, as he left Wednesday’s game against the Jets with an apparent knee injury and could be out for quite a while. [National Post, Nucks Misconduct]
- Your Capitals Minute for today. [Capitals Voice]
- News and notes from yesterday out at Kettler:
- In general. [Monumental video (Oates, Ovechkin, Orlov, Brouwer, Rinkside Update/Fehr)]
- Congrats to Dmitry Orlov, who signed a two-year contract extension yesterday. So guess that having “no future in Washington whatsoever” doesn’t include the next two years, eh, Mark Gandler? [Rink, Caps Today, Caps, WaPo, CSNW (and again), CBS Sports, AP, PHT, RMNB, DSP]
- The trade that brought Jaroslav Halak to DC also seems to have relegated Braden Holtby to backup status. To his credit, he’s taking it in stride. [WaPo, Express, CSNW]
- With 15 games remaining in the regular season, the Caps are already talking must-win games. [AP, CSNW]
- Meanwhile Brooks Laich will be cutting back on the non-game skating and is considered “day-to-day” for the remainder of the season. And this is new and different…how? [WaPo, CSNW]
- Speaking of Laich, should the Caps use their second compliance buyout on the suddenly oft-injured Laich this summer? [Talk the Red]
- Change is coming. At least, it really should be. [DSP]
- Evgeny Kuznetsov is a salty dog after drawing iron the other night. [RMNB]
- Checking in with the Capitals Hill gang as they tackle the Caps’ recent slide and other topics in this week’s podcast. [CapsHill]
- Goaltender s Philipp Grubauer checks in on a list of the top ten NHL goaltending prospects. [THW]
- Down Goes Brown evaluates the teams on the NHL playoff bubble and notes, helpfully, that a Caps’ playoff berth likely means another matchup with the Rangers. Hooray… [Grantland]
- Mike Green has been known to wreak havoc at both ends of the ice – but lately he’s wreaking havoc with fantasy hockey owners. [Puck Daddy]
- If Tuesday’s loss to Pittsburgh felt like the millionth time the Caps had lost to the Penguins, don’t worry, it wasn’t… it was only the 100th. [Empty Netters]
- Acquired from the Coyotes in the trade that sent Martin Erat to Phoenix, forward Chris Brown is set to make his debut at center for the Bears tonight against Syracuse. [Patriot-News]
- The GM meetings are over and done, and outside of a few potentially beneficial tweaks to the faceoffs, there don’t appear to be too many changes on the way… [CP]
- …but what are some changes that should have been made? [Puck Daddy, PHT]
- No, Canada! There will be no hockey sweep in Sochi, as the US sledge hockey team downed our northern neighbors and will face Russia in the gold-medal match on Saturday. [Globe and Mail]
- Hockey history is weird and wonderful, and we’re just glad that the Caps have gotten to play a little role in the weird wonderfulness. [CapsHill]
- More pics of studly studs in suits, table games and of course… grown men in spandex. (Hugs, Brouwer Rangers!) [Monumental, RMNB]
- The DC area is making a push to hold the Olympics to the District a decade from now, and Caps’ owner Ted Leonsis has been made vice chair of the group in charge of the bid. [OlympicTalk]
- Always fun when the Caps show up in pop culture – the latest is the Americans, where Dennis “Pee Wee” Maruk gets a little shoutout from a Russian spy. [WaPo]
- Finally, happy 33rd birthday to Joe Motzko.