Your entitled to nothing links:
- The Rink radio’d it up with John Walton, discussing pivot production. [Rink on the Radio]
- Get to know 40 goal-scorer Michael Raffl… [Rink]
- …and rookie phenom defenseman Shayne Gostisbehere . [Rink]
- Previews of tonight’s Game 1 action between the Caps and Flyera from Vogs, NHL.com, and Stars and Sticks, and be sure to check out the fabulous folks…er, I mean our mortal enemies over at Broad Street Hockey for the other side of tonight’s matchup.
- Coach Barry Trotz understands the history. But that was then, and this is now, and he’s ready to go make a little history of his own. [Globe and Mail]
- Related: Confident Capitals are confident. [Sun Media]
- They are also balanced, on and off the ice. [WaPo]
- Oh, and they are guided by a pretty great general manager. [WaPo]
- Speaking of history, here’s your handy Capitals playoff postmortem blog post set up and ready to go. Copy and paste is your friend, friend. [Fox Sports]
- Ten reasons for hope and panic. [CBS DC]
- News and notes from yesterday’s final pre-playoff practice:
- In general. [Monumental video (Trotz, Kuznetsov, Niskanen, Schmidt, Rinkside Update/Alzner), NoVa Caps, FiCP (pix)]
- Scary moments in practice as two players left the ice early. Jason Chimera left but returned, and T.J. Oshie went down in a heap, left the ice under his own power and did not return. Coach says he is expected to play today. [WaPo, WashTimes, NHL.com, CSNMA]
- Bask in the glory of series previews from across the land. [CSNMA, Capitals Report (video), NHL.com, THN (podcast), philly.com, Peerless, NatPo, S&S, Caps Outsider]
- Ranking the goalies. [ESPN $]
- Andre Burakovsky , it is your time to shine… [THN]
- … and even though Evgeny Kuznetsov broke out in last year’s playoffs, it is time for him to break out yet again. [CBS Sports]
- Reviewing the Caps/Flyers regular season series by zone play. [BSH]
- Understanding the Caps at even strength. [BSH]
- The key for Philly is definitely special teams… [philly.com]
- … unless the key is shutting down the Alex Ovechkin line… [philly.com]
- … I mean you do have a plan for stopping Ovi, right? [Courier-Post]
- … but maybe it’ll be Jaroslav Halak wearing that Steve Mason uni. [philly.com]
- Sizing up the Flyers special teams. [RMNB]
- For all Caps loyalists in and around New York City, there is one heck of a fan group making waves. NYC Caps Crew is your source for meet-ups, watch parties, awesome Caps shirts and patches, and general fun-and-merriment. Check ’em out! (P.S. I hear they have a Craig Laughlin drinking game. Count us in!) [NYC Caps Crew]
- With the Caps and Flyera set to renew playoff acquaintances, it calls to mind what happened the last time they met – 8 years ago. [NVC]
- Got your crystal ball ready? Good, so do these people:
- Caps in 5. [Daily Herald, Sverige Radio, CSNMA]
- Caps in 6. [TSN.ca]
- Caps in 7. [Chat Sports]
- Caps or Hawks, who ya got? It’s Mike Wilbon and Mr. Tony, so it goes about as well as you’d think. [ESPN]
- The Caps fare pretty well in this hybrid Fancystats/Eye Test playoff predictor widget. [THN]
- We’ll see how they fare in the official calls department, seeing as how the blue-line camera seems to still need work. [CBS Sports]
- Justin Williams is known as Mr. Game Seven, Mr. Perfect, and now Mr. Popular For An Interview On The Eve of the Playoffs. Here’s the latest. [ESPN]
- The Ice Cheetah had some thoughts. [NBC4 (video)]
- Braden Holtby shares some of his favorite places in DC. [Washington Life]
- Nate Schmidt sets us non-Minnesota natives straight. [RMNB]
- Finally, happy 49th birthday to Alain Cote and happy 53rd to Paul MacDermid.