Your savory breakfast links:

● It was a good news / bad news kind of day for the Caps and Caps' prospects still playing hockey.

● The good news, of course, is that Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, and Evgeny Kuznetsov will be playing for a title in today's World Championship final. The puck will drop on the gold medal match against Slovakia at 1:30pm Eastern.

○ The 6-2 victory over defending champion Finland was powered by a dominant performance by Evgeni Malkin and his hat trick, but Ovechkin chipped in with a lethal snipe and a strong Hunter Hockey two-way game, including laying out to block shots when his team was already up 5-1. [RMNB]

○ Sasha Syomin went pointless, but he's still on board for upping his defensive game. [AllHockey.ru]

○ Birthday boy Kuznetsov was deployed as the thirteenth forward, which meant he had plenty of time to enjoy the action from the Russia bench. He got a little more than two minutes of ice time as the clock wound down in the third and with the outcome no longer in doubt. And guess what? He's fine with that. [AllHockey.ru]

○ Misty Peter Bondra memories as RMNB looks back at the last time Russia and Slovakia met in the gold medal game. [RMNB]

● The bad news: Back in Shawinigan, QC, Stanislav Galiev and the Saint John Sea Dogs experienced their first-ever loss in a Memorial Cup game. Frustrated by bad ice and a disciplined London Knights team, the Dogs top-six were held off the scoreboard and two of their three goals were scored while on the penalty kill. Galiev went 0-0-0, 1 hit, 1 SOG, and was on-ice for two goals against. Their next game is Monday against the WHL champion Edmonton Oil Kings. [Station Nation, Buzzing the Net]

● Finally, happy 47th birthday, Bruce Cassidy!

Your savory breakfast links:

● Mike Green thinks the Caps are close... but will he be here to see things through? [CSNW, Puck Daddy, SB Nation DC, with Green's "By the Tens" review at Peerless]

● Nicklas Backstrom sits down with Mike Vogel for a one-on-one exit interview. [Caps365 (video)]

● Lessons learned from the Dale Hunter Era. [WaPo]

● Would Alexander Semin be a fit on the Island? And what might the Caps be looking for this summer? [THN, with more sizing up the summer at RLS]

● Dennis Wideman would love to return to D.C. next year, but he and the Caps are likely too far apart on salary, term and role to make it work. [WashTimes]

● Buy or sell: "[Evgeny Kuznetsov]'s value on May 18, 2012 also still far exceeds that of a first-round draft pick in 2013." [DCEx (good read)]

● Mike Knuble isn't done yet. Well, isn't done with the NHL, at least. [KOL]

● Looking back at John Erskine's 2011-12. [RtR]

● ESPN's "best" moments of the playoffs might not fit Caps fans' definition of the word. [ESPN]

● Handing out Caps fight and rookie of the year awards. [RtR, RtR]

● Alex Ovechkin is the world's 11th most marketable athlete. [Alex Ovetjkin]

● A digital portrait of Braden Holtby that's so life-like you wonder why someone spent 79 hours doing it. But... cool? [Capitals Outsider]

● You can watch Stas Galiev in the Memorial Cup tonight, if you so desire. [WashTimes]

● Finally, happy 20th birthday to Kuznetsov, who recently lost a hardest shot contest to... a fan?

78.9 - Percentage of Washington Capitals regular season goals in 2011-12 (excluding empty-net and penalty shot tallies) which came at even-strength, the highest percentage since before the lockout. The past seven seasons, broken out:

From Alzner to Wideman, we're taking a look at and grading (please read the criteria below) the 2011-12 season for every player who laced 'em up for the Caps for a significant number of games during the campaign, with an eye towards 2012-13. Next up, Troy Brouwer.

Troy Brouwer

#20 / Right Wing / Washington Capitals

Height: 6-2

Weight: 214

Born: Aug 17, 1985

NHL Seasons: 3 (and parts of three others)

Contract Status: $2,350,000 cap hit through 2012-13; UFA summer 2013

'10-'11 Rink Wrap: N/A

Key Stat: His 15 missed shots in the 2012 playoffs were second only to Alex Ovechkin (18) among all Caps.

Interesting Stat: Brouwer led the team - and was ninth in the League - with a whopping 247 hits during the regular season. This is the second straight year in which he's both led his team and finished in the NHL's top ten in that stat.

The Good: Acquired on Draft Day 2011 for a first-round pick, Troy Brouwer was brought in to provide a big, physical presence (and a bit of offense) to the Caps' top six. And at the end of the day, that's pretty much what he did - he brought the big body, the bone-rattling checks and a few fights, while chipping in 18 goals and finishing fourth on the team in that department. In fact, between opening night and the end of January, Brouwer only once went more than three games without a point, racking up 26 of his 33 on the season - and his first career hat trick - during that span. And if you want to talk about big (and timely) offense, look no further than his game-winning goal in Game 5 against the Boston Bruins.

But when it's Brouwer you're focusing on, that other stuff takes a backseat to the physicality, and this year was no exception. As expected, he provided a nice one-two punch alongside Alex Ovechkin when it came to throwing the body around, with the two combining for 456 hits during the regular season (and another 97 during the playoffs) - his 247 hits on the year led the team, and included a bruising 11-hit game in the Caps' 1-0 win over the Penguins in January. Along with a bodycheck or 2(00), his five fights on the season marked a career high for the big right-winger and trailed only Matt Hendricks (who dropped 'em 11 times). Amazingly enough, despite the bruises his body took - and doled out - he was one of only six players on the Caps to skate in all 82 regular season games as well as all 14 playoff games.

The Bad: As much as the Caps appreciated the hits and the nearly 20 goals he chipped in, it wasn't all sunshine and roses for Brouwer's inaugural season with the Caps. He was on for more even strength goals-against/60 than anyone else on the regular roster during the season (although he did thankfully all but reverse that trend in the playoffs). A product of playing alongside some slightly less defensively responsible linemates for much of the season? Perhaps. But Brouwer also had an unfortunate tendency to drift a bit in his own zone, something that burned the Caps on a number of occasions and contributed to his team-low (tied with Carlson) plus-minus rating of minus-15 - although that is also owed in part to his team-worst 981 PDO, which in turn was driven by a woeful on-ice save percentage of .898. So good times all around.

And while Brouwer's 33 points weren't that far off from where his point totals usually end up, the fact is that the bulk of his scoring came early on in the season. After putting up 26 points in the first four months, his offense fell off a cliff to the tune of just seven points over the final three months of the season (with three in the final month) - at a time when the Caps, fighting for their playoff lives, needed every point they could get. The trend even continued, albeit at a more compressed rate, during the playoffs, as both his postseason goals came in the first round and he managed just two more assists - both in Game 5 - against the Rangers.

Oh, and speaking of not scoring against the Rangers... yeah, that one's going to sting. Make it up to us next year, Troy.

The Vote: Rate Brouwer below on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) based on his performance relative to his potential and your expectations for the season - if he had the best year you could have imagined him having, give him a 10; if he more or less played as you expected he would, give him a 5 or a 6; if he had the worst year you could have imagined him having, give him a 1.

The Discussion: Does the first-round pick the Caps gave up for Brouwer seem like too much or was it just about the right price for what they got? Brouwer saw time on both the top line and as part of the third- and fourth lines during the playoffs - where do you see him being a better fit going forward? Finally, what will it take for him to earn a 10 rating next year?

Your savory breakfast links:

● The search for a new coach will be competing for attention with roster construction and may take some time. [WaPo]

○ The case for Marc Crawford. [Caps Outsider]

○ The case for Bob Hartley and/or Paul Maurice. [Caps 101]

○ The case for Adam Oates. [RtR]

○ The case for Ron Wilson ... [Caps Outsider]

○ ... but please, no. Just no. [Homer McFanboy]

● All this may not matter much anyway, with a labor dispute on the horizon. [Frankovic]

● Jay Beagle gave all. [WashTimes, WaPo]

● John Erskine, by the tens. [Peerless]

● Report card time for Keith Aucoin. [CRtC]

● Braden Holtby? Money. [Inside Hockey]

● The eternal question - what to do with Alexander Semin? [Brooks LaichYear]

○ Here's the case for not giving him $6.7M to score 20 goals. [Dump 'n' Chase]

● In which Evgeny Kuznetsov dominates the year-end Caps' prospect achievement awards. [Hockey's Future]

● In (sigh) international action:

○ Alex Ovechkin got the scoring started for the victorious Team Russia, while Sasha Syomin raised the bids on his KHL contract with a 2-point performance. They advance to the semifinal round and will play against Finland on Saturday. [RMNB, Alex Ovetjkin, Puck Daddy, IIHF]

○ Sadly, Nicklas Bäckström's time at the World Championship has ended all-too-soon, as Sweden was eliminated in the waning seconds of their quarterfinal match with Team Czech. [IIHF]

● The puck drops tonight on the 2012 Memorial Cup in Shawinigan, QC. The only Caps prospect playing in this year's tourney is Stanislav Galiev, who returns to defend last year's title with the reigning champion Saint John Sea Dogs. [Buzzing the Net, Station Nation, SportsNet, NHL.com]

● Finally, happy 53rd birthday to Errol Rausse.