Your savory breakfast links:
- Previews of Game 4 at the Garden from Vogs, NHL.com, AP, Rangers, Peerless and the PuckBuddys, and be sure to visit
the evil onesour good friends over at Blueshirt Banter for the other side of tonight’s match-up. - Home ice has served the teams well so far in this series. Let’s change that, shall we, Caps? [NHL.com]
- Checking in with the Caps ahead of another visit to MSG:
- John Erskine missed a couple of shifts Monday night after taking a big hit from Ryan Callahan, but he’s fine. Or he’s “fine”. Because it’s the playoffs. [WashTimes]
- Ryan McDonagh says Alex Ovechkin was tired; Adam Oates says nope. Of course what we all want to know is whether his hands were shaky. Because it’s the playoffs. [WaPo, WashTimes, PHT, NYDN, NJ.com]
- Regardless of whether his captain actually was tired or not, Oates gave him – and the rest of the team – the day off… [NHL.com, NBCW, WaPo (and again), CSNW]
- …except for Eric Fehr and Troy Brouwer, who had to join him the media. But hey, at least they got some fresh air. [Monumental video (Oates, Fehr, Brouwer)]
- Your mission, Caps, should you choose to accept it: stay out of the gosh darn penalty box. [Dump ‘n Chase, WaPo, WashTimes, CSNW]
- And perhaps avoid falling into the same old habits. [KK]
- The babble from the Blueshirts:
- The Rangers got some help in Game 3 from two of their newer members in Derick Brassard and John Moore. You should know a thing or two about them. Cough. Cough. [NHL.com, CBC, NYDN, Newsday, NYPost]
- Old problems solved, new problems emerge. [Blue Seat Blogs]
- Knock knock. Who’s there? Marc. Marc who? Marc Staal. (…admit it, that’s the kind of gentle comedy that keeps you good people reading.) [NJ.com, NY Post]
- Ryane Clowe improving, Darroll Powe not skating. Which just goes to show that a roster can only contain so many strangely-spelled names at one time. [NHL.com, Blueshirt Banter]
- A few leftovers from Monday’s game, including that penalty for too many me-…wait, sorry, “too many men”. [WaPo, WashTimes, NBCW]
- The Rangers may be experiencing a bit of deja vu, as the Caps have given them a Devil of a fight so far. [Fire & Ice]
- Speaking of deja vu, hey look, Karl Alzner and John Carlson are no longer skating together. [NHL.com]
- Henrik Lundqvist‘s new theme song is “Shots“… [Newsday]
- …while Braden Holtby‘s is “Daydream Believer”. [RMNB]
- It is far too soon to panic, draw conclusions, or do anything else that frankly Caps fans are really, really good at. [WashTimes, Caps Outsider]
- Especially considering that this “close” series may not be as close as it looks on the score sheet. [Shutdown Line]
- Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to read a thousand really depressing articles about them. [Bog, DSP]
- After letting a 2-0 series lead slip away, the Hershey Bears are facing an all-or-nothing Game 5 against Providence. Gulp. [Pennlive]
- Kerry Fraser explains and upholds the non-call on Karl Alzner by the officials in Game 2. We always liked you a little more than we let on, Kerry. [TSN]
- The best player not in the NHL right now is none other than Evgeny Kuznetsov. Any time you’d like to remove that qualifier, Kuz… [HF]
- Jay Beagle gets the spotlight from his former stomping grounds. [ECHL]
- Tom Hanks and Brian Williams were among the glitterati walking the blue carpet Monday night. Seriously…they have a blue carpet. And celebs walk it. Before a hockey game. [Bog]