Your savory breakfast links:
- Recaps and other assorted musings on, you guessed it, another loss from us, Monumental video (Oates, players), Vogs, NHL.com, AP, SportsXchange, Reuters, CBS, WaPo, WashTimes, CSNW (gamer, blog, Joe B.), DCEx (and again), Frankovic, Sick Unbelievable, Peerless, Hockey Shopped, DSP, Caps Basketball, RtR, Puckhead and RMNB, and with the view from the ‘burgh, the Penguins, Post-Gazette, Trib-Review and our SB Nation partners over at Pensburgh.
- Somewhere between “this is getting out of hand” and “yeah, this is completely ridiculous”, Braden Holtby made an amazing save on Sidney Crosby that was Varlamov-esque. [RMNB]
- Of course, that save only happened because Adam Oates gave Michal Neuvirth the hook early in the game, and he explains why. [WashTimes, WaPo]
- Notes and assorted whatnot from yesterday:
- Everyone’s talking about Alex Ovechkin… including the Penguins, who weirdly only have nice things to say about #8. [CSNW, WaPo, Wash Times]
- Roman Hamrlik is trying to stay positive, play his best and do any number of cliched things that a regularly-scratched player does. [CSNW]
- The Caps need to be more offensive. And we don’t mean by reenacting scenes from Sacha Baron Cohen movies. [WaPo]
- One thing that would help in that department? Nicklas Backstrom returning to form. Any day now, Nick. [WaPo]
- Adam Oates may not be a student of #fancystats, but he’s a big proponent of advanced analysis. [Dump ‘n Chase]
- With players and coaches changing, perhaps it’s time to look at one of the constants. [OFB]
- In case you missed it, we dropped another episode of Capitals Net Presence yesterday afternoon, which includes some interesting thoughts from CSNW’s Jill Sorenson. [Japers’ Rink]
- The Caps may be struggling, but don’t expect the captain to be shipped out anytime soon. [WaPo]
- So… what now? [ESPN ($ – Custance)]
- Today’s edition of “guess who used to be a teammate of Adam Oates but is now coaching against him” features the Pens’ bench boss, Dan “Smirky” Bylsma. [Wash Times]
- With just two wins on the season and the rest of the East pulling away, it may already be too late for the Caps to be thinking playoffs. [ESPN ($ – Greenberg)]
- Look, a one-on-one with a Caps’ defenseman that doesn’t result in a goal-against! (We kid, Karl Alzner, we kid.) [THN]
- Checking in with the Hershey Bears… [PennLive, RtR]
- …and the next generation of Caps. [Capitals]
- The loss of Alexander Semin to free agency over the summer may be having more of an impact than expected [Caps Outsider (related: big night for former Caps around the League)]
- As we close in on the next Winter Olympics in Sochi, Ovechkin and his Russian teammates have their eyes on a bit of redemption. [SI.com]
- A slimmed-down Ted Leonsis (looking good, sir) talks about the prospect of eventually parting ways with Comcast en route to turning Monumental Network into an actual network [Bog]
- Yeah, this list of the most hated players in the NHL is… suspect. But hey, Mike Ribeiro gets a mention. So there’s that. [SI.com]
- Troy Brouwer talks about his, er, enthusiastic fan club. Go go Brouwer Rangers!! [Bog]
- Brooks Laich and John Carlson will be joining 106.7 The Fan for a Chalk Talk later this month, and you can join them. Bring scissors to cut Carlson’s hair and dessert’s on me. [CBS DC]
- Speaking of places to go, be sure to sign up for the blood drive on March 23rd at Kettler and you can be the proud owner of an Olie Kolzig bobblehead. Which is totally worth a few pints of blood, am I right? [RMNB, Capitals Outsider]
- Finally, happy 46th birthday to Yvon Corriveau and happy 53rd to Dino Ciccarelli.