Your savory breakfast links:
- As you know by now, Alex Ovechkin was handed a two-game suspension for his knee-on-knee hit on Carolina’s Tim Gleason on Monday night.
- AO, via the team, issued the following statement in response to the suspension: “I regret that this has happened. I’m glad that Tim wasn’t injured because I never ever want to see anyone get hurt. I am disappointed to miss these games and I can’t wait to get back on the ice next week to help my team.” Presumably left on the cutting room floor was a second half of the statement, which no doubt read, “And did I mention that Tim wasn’t injured? Like, at all? In fact, he was around to not get an instigator late in the game when he dropped his gloves to fight. So yeah, no injury there. Unrelated: how’s David Booth?”
- Reaction to the suspension was plentiful, and here’s some of it from Puck Daddy, Peerless (as only Peerless could react), OFB (as, uh, only OFB could react) Sporting News, Scott Morrison of CBCSports, Edmonton Sun, Red and Black Hockey, Empty Netters (bringing the Pittsburgh
insanitybiaspoint of view), Fight For Old DC. - TSN asked 25 NHLers “whether they viewed Ovechkin as a hard-hitting player, or more often as a reckless and dirty player,” and seven responded that he was both reckless and dirty (why no distinction was drawn is beyond me, but I guess it’s good to see that Karl Rove has apparently found work). [TSN.ca]
- Before the suspension came down, a bunch of Caps shared their thoughts on the hit and reaction to it, including some strong words from Brooks Laich… [Examiner]
- … and Bruce Boudreau threw that “R” word out there. [Puck Daddy, Washington Times]
- The other part of the AO hit, of course, is the injury, and he is officially “day-to-day” on that front. [Examiner]
- In other Caps news (yes, there was some), Mike Knuble is hopeful a December 9 return, both Tom Poti and Alexander Semin participated in full practice (though the latter ruled himself out for Thursday, unbeknownst to his coach), and Shaone Morrisonn is shutting it down for a couple of days (not good). [Examiner]
- “Eat It, Haters,” Jeff Schultz edition. [From The Rink]
- More power rankings are out, with the Caps down one to fourth here at SBNation, down one to fifth at FOX Sports and down one to sixth at SI.
- AO isn’t the League’s most efficient scorer. In related news, they don’t ask “how,” they ask “how many.” [WSJ]
- Zach Miskovic is playing well down in Hershey. [John Walton Hockey]
- If you want a Michael Dubuc bobblehead, you have to vote for it first. [Stingrays]