Your savory breakfast links:
- Today is qualifying day for eight nations whose men’s Olympic hockey teams look to advance to the quarterfinals:
- Austria and Slovenia played while you were sleeping and… Slovenia won and advances to face Sweden. [NHL.com]
- Next up in just a few minutes is Russia and Norway, with the winner advancing to face Finland. [NHL.com (and again), USA Today]
- Later today (noon ET), the Czech Republic will go up against Slovakia [NHL.com]
- Also at noon, it’s Latvia vs. Switzerland for a chance to take a shot at beating Canada. [NHL.com]
- For some reason, Russian fans are angry and protesting the correct application of a rule. [AP, R-Sport, SI.com, NBC4]
- The game in question – with all of its political and historic story lines and its D.C.-based superstar playing for the other side – was a hot topic of conversation on Meet the Press. [DC Sports Bog]
- Bee tee dubs, Russia might want to rock the red tonight. [Icethetics]
- John Carlson has made The Leap. [CSNW]
- Hugs! [Puck Daddy]
- Adam Oates is hoping that the Olympics will re-energize his Olympians. [CSNW]
- And the gold medal for stupid goes to… the NHL? [WashTimes]
- What to watch for when the Caps get back to work. [Capitals Outsider]
- From Sochi to the trading block. [NYT]
- Michael Latta and Casey Wellman are hummin’ for Hershey. [Patriot-News]
- The whole team is playing well, in fact, and will bring their act to Verizon Center this weekend. [Dump n’ Chase]
- Finally, in a stunning development, Evgeny Kuznetsov has tweeted something about his future that tempts Caps fans to dream about what might soon be. [WaPo, RMNB]