Your savory breakfast links:
- Previews of tonight’s game against the B’s from Vogs, Peerless and NHL.com, and be sure to check out our SB Nation partner Stanley Cup of Chowder for coverage from the other side of tonight’s match up.
- To refresh your memory, this is the third of four meetings on the season between the Caps and B’s, with the Caps taking a couple of 4-1 decisions, on Opening Night (seems like forever ago, doesn’t it?) and again in early February.
- In case you missed it last night, San Jose’s loss clinched for the Caps the franchise’s first ever Presidents’ Trophy. [Ed Frankovic, FanHouse]
- Mike Green‘s Norris bid is picking up steam. [WaPo]
- Moron, err, more on the whole R.J. Umberger quote(s). [Puck Daddy, Ted’s Take (and again)]
- Myth Bustin’ the old “Caps are only good because they play in the Southeast Division” meme. [D.C. Sports Bog]
- Why the Caps should hope to see the Rangers in the first round. [RMNB]
- The Maven has Caps/Pens as the League’s best current rivalry. Ya think? [Kukla’s Korner]
- Hershey will host the 2011 AHL All-Star Game, which will be quite convenient for Braden Holtby. [Patriot-News]
- Speaking of Hershey, Anton Gustafsson made his North American debut in last night’s win and had a couple of assists. Cody Eakin and Mathieu Perreault also scored. [AHL]
- Finally, per the HHoF, on this date back in 1981, “Dennis Maruk scored his 8th career hat trick to become the first player in Washington Capitals‘ history to score 50 goals in a season. They came in a 7-2 win over the visiting Detroit Red Wings.” Nine years to the day later, “Washington’s Dino Ciccarelli scored a hat trick, including the winning goal at 5:34 of overtime as the Capitals won 5-4 at New Jersey, in Game 1 of the Patrick Division Semi-Finals. Ciccarelli also added an assist in the game.” Thirteen years to the day after that, “Peter Bondra became the Washington Capitals all-time scoring leader (passing Mike Gartner) with 2 goals (to give hime 790 points) in a 5-3 win over the visiting Penguins. Bondra’s second goal gave him 30 goals for the 9th time in his career.” (Bondra’s 825 career points are 303 more than Alex Ovechkin currently has, meaning that if AO keeps up his career-to-date scoring pace, he’ll catch and pass Bondra about three-quarters of the way through the 2012-13 season.)