Your savory breakfast links:
- Tomas Fleischmann skated a full practice with his teammates for the first time this season yesterday and felt great. [Washington Times, Washington Post, Capitals Insider, In The Room, Caps365 (video)]
- Despite returning to practice, it’s unclear when Flash will return to the lineup, and “[i]n all likelihood, it won’t be Thursday or Saturday, Coach Bruce Boudreau said.” The fact that he’s ineligible to come off Long-Term Injured Reserve for a game before next Tuesday increases that likelihood to 100%.
- In case you missed it, the Caps signed 2009 third round pick Cody Eakin yesterday. Perhaps they were inspired by this showing over the weekend, not to mention his 9-goal, 3-assist start in his first dozen games of the season. [Capitals]
- The Caps are up two spots to sixth in our latest SBN power rankings, down one (huh?) to tenth at SI, up two to seventh at CBS Sports, up nine to 13th at FOX Sports, and up two to sixth at CBC.
- Early season League-wide under- and overachievers. [VFtCS]
- Is Alex Ovechkin the most exciting player in NHL history? [Ed Frankovic’s Blog]
- “According to a report in Russia, Nylander’s agent tried to sell his client to Dynamo Moscow. They were not interested. … Dynamo Moscow cited Nylander’s being benched all the time without any play time as one of the reasons for refusal.” Interesting. [@dchesnokov]
- 10 Things You Should Know About… Chris Clark. Good to see this feature return to it’s original title after a week of “10 Burning Questions With…” Of note, the last two subjects have both since missed games due to injury. Good luck, Cap’n! [Capitals]
- The least interesting Caps-related news ever? Could be. [Sun Gazette]
- Nicklas Backstrom on his new website. [Caps365 (video)]
- Steve Kolbe catches up with Brendan Morrison. [Capitals (audio)]
- Don’t expect a big drop in the salary cap next year: “The number will be flat next season, at worst $1 million lower.” [CBC.ca]
- Start reparing yourself now for, “And with the last pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, the Washington Capitals select… David Bondra.” [Central Scouting (PDF) via WCHB]
- Dinamo Minsk fired their head coach yesterday. That coach? Glen Hanlon. [FanShot, KHL]