Your savory breakfast links:
- Peerless sits at the end of the (Caps) bar and examines the team’s speckled shootout history. [Rink]
- News and notes from yesterday out at Kettler:
- In general. [Dump ‘n Chase, Monumental video (Oates, Backstrom, Alzner, Laich)]
- After some cross-country flying, a shootout loss and a day off, Adam Oates put his team through their paces with a tough skate. [CSNW]
- Among those taking part in said tough skate were Nicklas Backstrom, who is good to go for tomorrow after absorbing a heavy hit Tuesday night… [WaPo, CSNW (and again), Pressbox DC]
- …while Brooks Laich skated for the first time since undergoing his procedure ten days ago and has been freed from the shackles of pain. [WaPo, CSNW]
- Get out the plastic combs and smile pretty, boys – it’s picture day! [Monumental video, Caps OT]
- John Carlson chats about officially being off the market. Sorry, ladies. [WMZQ]
- Looking at hockey analytics and what they could mean for the Caps. [Talk the Red]
- Evgeny Kuznetsov‘s six points in six games have him on the fantasy hockey hot list. [Puck Daddy]
- Speaking of Kuznetsov, if #35 in the latest set of Clyde’s awesome pics doesn’t make you smile, you may be a robot. [Rink]
- Checking in on Chocolatetown:
- Hershey fans were rooting for the Baby Pens on Wednesday, Caps fans will be rooting for the Flyers and Pens tonight…we may never be clean. [Patriot-News]
- Scary moment for Philipp Grubauer at practice yesterday, when an errant stick got through his goalie mask, cutting him near his left eye. [Patriot-News]
- Alex Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, Maria Kirilenko, former NBA player Gheorge Muresan, Ted Leonsis and Wale all hung out at the Wizards game on Wednesday because of course they did. [WaPo (and again), Ted’s Take]
- “Nothing builds solidarity in a community like winning sports teams.” Someday it would be nice to find out if that’s true, wouldn’t it? [LinkedIn (Leonsis)]
- “Carly and Alzy” hang with fans. [Caps Outsider]
- The NCAA’s Frozen Four tournament kicks off today, and a couple of former collegiate players put those college brains to work as they filled out their brackets. [Caps OT]
- Barrie, Ontario will play host to this year’s Hockey Helps the Homeless tournament, featuring several former NHLers – including ex-Cap Mike Gartner. [Barrie Examiner]
- Finally, happy 41st birthday to Jan Benda, and happy 55th to Loooooouuuuuu Franceschetti.