Your savory breakfast links:
- Previews of tonight’s bash with the Bruins from Vogs (plus game notes), NHL.com and Peerless, and be sure to check out our SB Nation pals over at Stanley Cup of Chowder for the other side of tonight’s matchup.
- Oh dear. The Bruins shut out Pittsburgh yesterday (their 5th straight win) and have overtaken the Caps for the #1 Wildcard spot, with one game in hand. The #2 Wildcard spot (and ITPST a first-round meeting with the NYR) is still in Caps control, but Florida and Ottawa have games-in-hand and are pushing hard… [PHT, THW, Ottawa Citizen]
- … as Coach Trotz tells his squad they are now merely “among” those teams fighting for the playoffs. [WaPo, CSNW, PHT]
- News and notes from yesterday out at Kettler:
- In general. [Monumental video (Trotz, Ward, Niskanen)]
- A scheduled day off became an unscheduled practice. [WaPo, CSNW]
- You can add Justin Peters and Brooks Laich to the Caps’ already-alarming list of the injured. [WaPo]
- A sad team has the sadz. [Caps Outsider]
- The Hershey Bears continued their recent uneven play, notching a 3-1 loss to the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins with Philipp Grubauer in net, a loss which cut their division lead to three points. The Bears’ next game is Wednesday at Portland, and they may find themselves down a goaltender depending on the situation in Washington. [Patriot-News]
- The South Carolina Stingrays continued their remarkable rewrite of the ECHL record books, logging their 18th straight victory with a 6-0 blanking of the Gwinnett Gladiators. And a good-looking victory it was, with the team kitted out in stars and stripes for Military Appreciation Night. [NHL.com, ECHL.com, @scstingrayshockey, game highlights]
- Just Troy Brouwer and Alex Ovechkin, chilling in Laurel with fans, Sharpies at the ready. [Caps Outsider]
- Finally, happy 36th birthday to Jean-Francois Fortin, happy 34th to Tyler Sloan, happy 33rd to Dave Steckel and happy 62nd to Blair Stewart.