Your savory breakfast links:
- A few embers from the game and series:
- It ultimately wasn’t enough, but the Caps left everything out on the ice in Game 7, and for that they (and we) should be proud. [WaPo (and again), CSNW, Ted’s Take, TSN, Hockeybuzz, THW]
- Why it happened. [NHL.com, WaPo]
- Yes, fine, Henrik Lundqvist is a somewhat decent goalie who occasionally plays well against the Capitals. [NHL.com]
- And yet Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov checked in with a couple of the second round’s best goals, so take that. [The Score]
- Every game of the Caps-Rangers series was decided by a single goal, just part of a more dramatic, lower-scoring round of playoff hockey. [CBC]
- Should Brooks Orpik face supplementary discipline for his hit on Dan Boyle? [THN]
- Call it a collapse if you absolutely must (because someone always must, right?). [WashTimes (Loverro)]
- This year really did – and does – feel different… even if the painful ending is the same. [CSNW, THN, Peerless, CBS DC]
- Speaking of pain, if you’re a masochist feel free to watch Boomer Esiason talk about the Rangers’ win. Pass. [CBS NY]
- I don’t wanna say goodbye for the summer, knowing the love we’ll miss. So let us make a pledge, to meet in September, and seal it with a… farewell press conference. [WaPo]
- All about Ovi:
- Fair or not, Ovechkin’s stellar resume will have an asterisk attached to it until he wins a Cup. [Toronto Star]
- He’s the most underachieving MVP ever. EVER. [FTW]
- Counterpoint: no, he’s really not. [WaPo]
- Fight! Fight! Fight! [CBS DC (audio)]
- What Ovechkin accomplished this season, and in Game 7, is drawing praise from many, including a certain NBC analyst. No… not that one. [CSNW, ESPN (video)]
- Looking back at a pretty awesome season that ended too soon. [Caps Outsider, Stars and Sticks]
- With the ending of the season, of course, comes a whole bunch of offseason questions to be answered. [Pressbox DC]
- Questions like… now what? [WaPo, Express, Caps Circle]
- Well, for Ovechkin, now it’s off to the World Championships where he’ll join Team Russia just in time to take on the US in the semifinals. [Caps, WaPo, WashTimes, CSNW, AP, Stars and Sticks]
- For Caps fans, it’s time to find a playoff bandwagon to join. [Stars and Sticks]
- As for Nate Schmidt, it’s off to Hershey to help the Bears avoid elimination. [Caps, Patriot-News]
- And Braden Holtby? After the season and the playoff run he put together, he should get all of the money. And all of the years. Just all of it. [WashTimes, Stars and Sticks]
- The future is a bit murkier for Mike Green and Eric Fehr, both set to be unrestricted free agents this summer. [THW (and again), RMNB]
- Overall, the team is close – but they’re still a few players away. [SI.com]
- The Caps have a horrific Game 7 history. Here’s how to fix that. [WaPo]
- Being a Caps fan has truly been an exercise in futility over the years. [numberFire]
- Actually, it hasn’t exactly been fun to be a DC sports fan in general over the years. The failed attempt at a sport superfecta Wednesday night was just the latest evidence. [WaPo, Wiz of Awes, The Left Bench]
- Great news in Hershey, where Stan Galiev has been cleared to return to the lineup – and not a minute too soon. [Patriot-News]
- Congrats to Caps’ prospect Madison Bowey and the Kelowna Rockets as they move on to the Memorial Cup. [Caps]
- Dick Pound, the former head of the WADA, was not happy with the decision to award the silver medal to noted drug user Nicklas Backstrom. Oh, go pound your own di-… ahem. [Puck Daddy]
- The growth of local hockey in Maryland means that the next generation of Jeff Halperns is on its way. [WTOP]
- Well, if you’re going to take out your frustration over a Caps’ loss… a golf club is probably fitting. (But please don’t attack people or cars.) [National Post]