Your savory breakfast links:
- What do you get for a team that just took five of six points on the week? A bunch of green up arrows, of course. [Rink]
- Recaps and other assorted musings from yesterday’s win from us, Vogs (plus postgame notes), Monumental video (Trotz, Chimera, Holtby, Honest Abe Beagle, Ovechkin, 40th anniversary Sergei Gonchar tribute), NHL.com, AP, WaPo (gamer, blog), CSNW (gamer, blog), Frankovic, Peerless, DSP (plus three stars), Stars and Sticks, RMNB, and from the Avs’ end of the ice, Mile High Hockey, Denver Post, and Mile High Sticking.
- Congratulations, Alex Ovechkin , whose second period power play goal was his 74th career gamewinner, with which he passed Peter Bondra for first place all-time on the Caps’ leaderboard. [CSNW, Stars and Sticks, theScore, Caps Outsider]
- Oh, also, from Elias: Alex Ovechkin’s 10th power play goal of the season snapped a 1-1 tie late in the second period and provided the winning margin for the Capitals in their 2-1 victory against the Avalanche. Ovechkin has scored at least 10 power play goals in nine of his 10 seasons in the NHL. (The one season he didn’t reach double-figures was 2010-11, when he scored only seven man-advantage goals.) The only other active players who’ve recorded at least nine seasons of 10 or more power plays goals are longtime veterans Jaromir Jagr and Jarome Iginla with 10 each.
- Hovercraft have come to the Verizon Center. [Caps Outsider]
- News and notes from yesterday out at Kettler:
- In general. [Vogs, Monumental video (Two-Man Advantage, Rinkside Update/Niskanen, Trotz, Orpik, Peters)]
- In which we learned that Nate Schmidt sustained a fracture of his left scapula (shoulder blade) and recovery is expected to take 6-8 weeks. Get well soon, Schmitty. [WaPo, CSNW (and teammates’ reactions), @nateschmidt29]
- Justin Peters is back up from Hershey and can “probably” anticipate a start at Dallas on Saturday. [WaPo]
- Know your hockey pundits – The Washington Post‘s Alex Prewitt vs. the Japers’ Crewitt. [Rink]
- It’s the midpoint on the season. Where do the Caps stand? [DSP]
- Ranking teams according to their power. [ESPN, SBNation, The Score, CSNW]
- Braden Holtby is ranked as the numero uno RFA headed for a big payday… [Dobber Hockey]
- … but how big? Possibly really really big. No, seriously. You’ll need oxygen to look at the potential price tag. [RMNB]
- Eric Fehr is settling in nicely at center. [WaPo]
- Surprise! John Carlson is sneaking up the scoring by a defenseman leaderboard. [THW]
- A few Winter Classic leftovers:
- Caps Red Line is debuting its Winter Classic special edition on Monumental Network today at 3pm Eastern. [Caps Today]
- Ovie the Bulldog recounts his cross-country adventure from San Diego to Nats Park. [Caps Outsider (Part One)]
- Here’s a nice gallery of pix from the Caps’ practice skate on New Years’ Eve. [Inside Hockey]
- Congratulations are in order for CSN broadcaster Joe Beninati, who was named D.C. Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association. [RMNB]
- There will be no mouse house parties in the House of Hershey, per Sheriff Oleksy. [Caps Outsider]
- Finally, happy 61st birthday to Mike Palmateer plus a stick salute to the memory of Art Ross and his one (yes, really) NHL goal. He would have turned 129 today.