Your savory breakfast links:
- Recaps and other assorted musings on yesterday’s incredible overtime victory from us, Monumental video (Trotz, Holtby, Oshie, Niskanen, highlights, Sullivan, Penguins Room), Vogs, NHL.com (and again), WaPo (gamer, blog), CSNMA (gamer, blog), ESPN (and again), SI (and again), NatPo, Aftonbladet, THN, Dobber, Eye on Hockey, TSN (and again), Frankovic, Peerless, RMNB (gamer, game blogs), DSP, PensBurgh and Empty Netters.
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- Game One was as advertised, and indicative of a long and exciting series to come. [ESPN (video), Sportsnet, Inside Hockey, Beaver County Times, WashTimes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
- “All eyes were on the man in the striped shirt with the headphones on, talking to someone 480 miles away — in Toronto, for God’s sake, another country — to determine one thing. Can the Capitals really have nice things? The man said, yes, they can. And Verizon Center erupted all over again.” [WashTimes]
- Congrats are in order for Braden Holtby , whose 21st playoff victory moved him from a tie with Olaf Kolzig to the top of the franchise leaderboard for postseason wins. Every win he records from here on out will set the bar that much higher. [theScore]
- Jay Beagle vs. all his opponents’ sticks provided great comic relief and happily, no injuries. [Puck Daddy, RMNB (and again)]
- No penalty was called at the time, but Tom Wilson ‘s encounter with Conor Sheary ‘s knee may draw the attention of the League. [Puck Daddy, Sportsnet]
- Haste over hits – this game was all about speed. [DC Sports Bog]
- Best and worst of Game One… [DC Sports Bog]
- … not mentioned – those light-up pool noodles looked really, really awesome on teevee. [Caps Outsider]
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- Notes from the Pens‘ end of the ice:
- “And so what you hope if you’re the Pittsburgh Penguins is that you didn’t just deliver your hardest punch and still come up empty.” [ESPN]
- Brian Dumoulin ‘s game was a little shaky. [TribLive]
- Oh hai there, heavy hockey. [PPG]
- A few notes from pregame:
- The craziest game preview you’ll ever see – and eerily prescient. [Zodiac Hockey]
- Washington prob’ly has the edge in this series – scout’s honor. [TSN]
- Matt Murray holds Braden Holtby in the highest regard… [PPG]
- … and the Caps are hoping to get a few past him. [CSNMA]
- Catching up with Matt Niskanen . [ESPN]
- In which Braden Holtby downplays Vezina Trophy candidacy, concedes “it’s pretty cool.” [WashTimes]
- And who knows, maybe he won’t even win the thing anyway… [WaPo]
- … though perhaps he will be worthy of a Conn Smythe. [theScore, ESPN $]
- Retired NHL’ers Ryan Whitney and Mike Rupp debate Caps/Pens and the other second-round series. [Players’ Tribune]
- The Hershey Bears fell in triple overtime 2-1 to Portland. They are behind two games to one in this best-of-five series and could face elimination in their next game on Saturday. [Bears]
- Finally, happy 60th birthday to Steve Clippingdale.