Your savory breakfast links:
- Previews of tonight’s battle with the Rangers from Vogs and NHL.com, and be sure to check out our SB Nation partners over at Blueshirt Banter for the other side of tonight’s matchup.
- Marc Staal may be making his return to the lineup after missing three weeks with a concussion… that or he’s just in DC to take in the sights. [Newsday]
- Meanwhile there’s some question as to who will start in net for the Rangers, Henrik Lundqvist or Cam Talbot. Which is perhaps the craziest thing ever in the history of things. [NY Daily News]
- Your Capitals Minute for today. [Capitals Voice]
- Do the Caps really tend to play better with their backs against the wall, or do score effects just make it look that way? [Rink]
- The Caps need more consistency from Mike Green… [WaPo]
- …which apparently translates to the Caps needing to cut ties with Mike Green. K. [THW]
- The World Juniors are underway!
- Caps’ prospect Riley Barber kicked off the scoring as Team USA rolled to a tournament-opening 5-1 win over the Czech Republic. [USoH, THW, TribLive]
- A few more future Caps check in as notable European players to watch at this year’s tournament… [ESPN ($)]
- …including Andre Burakovsky, who assisted on Christian Djoos‘s eventual game-winning goal over Switzerland (and backed up some of his chattiness). [CSNW, Slam]
- So how did all five Caps’ prospects do on Day 1? [THW]
- A look back at the year that was as we get set to bid adieu to 2013:
- Checking off a list of the 13 best NHL games of the calendar year… [SI.com]
- …the top 10 hockey fights of 2013… [Puck Daddy]
- …the top 10 goals of 2013… [CBS Sports]
- …and the top Alex Ovechkin of 2013. [PHT]
- Looking ahead at the year to come, complete with the twitch-inducing sentence “the Capitals are eliminated by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round of the playoffs”. Gah. [Sports Xchange]
- The NHL Network could be a great hub of hockey programming – but at the moment, it’s still a blind spot for the League. [Awful Announcing]
- Even-strength woes, top prospects, wheel o’goaltending and more in the latest Capital Letters. [NBC4]
- Down on the farm:
- Hershey forward Nicolas Deschamps is riding a five-game point streak, a feat which earned him Player of the Week honors from the AHL. [Patriot-News, AHL]
- A look back at the final game played at Hersheypark Arena. [SHOE]
