Thursday Caps Clips: Slip Sliding Away

Your savory breakfast links:

• Peerless sits in the reviewing stand and reviews March's Death March. [Rink]
• News and notes from yesterday out at Kettler:
  • In general. [Monumental video (Capitals Report, Oates, Backstrom, Halak, Chimera)]
  • Reunited, and it feels so good... Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom were lineys at practice at long last, with Mikhail Grabovski riding shotgun. [CSNW]
  • Troy Brouwer took a maintenance day. [WaPo]
  • The Preds' Rich Clune reportedly reached out to Patrick Wey by text after Sunday night's game. What a mensch. [theScore, Tennessean]
• Prepare for the gnashing of teeth and rending of garments:
  • It's gotten late, early. [WashTimes]
  • The quadrillion-dollar question - what comes next? [WaPo (Svrluga), WashTimes (Harris), Puck Daddy (Wyshynski), CSNW (video)]
  • Hey, remember that time that Ovi totally woofed it on that fourth Dallas goal?  Yes, that one. Pretty cruddy effort, right? Well HC Adam Oates agrees with you and called out his captain... [WaPo, PHT, Eye on Hockey]
  • ... which just might have been less about that play, and more about a desperate coach preparing his escape goat. [theScore (Bourne)]
  • So maybe Ovechkin doesn't play that much D. There's six guys in each game with that primary responsibility. Why have they been playing so atrociously? [WaPo, and Exhibit A]
• Good news!  Contract discussions are ongoing between the Caps and Grabovski's agent.  However, there is a troublesome clause about wanting to win a Stanley Cup that could be gumming up the works. [CSNW]
• Two words: Retail therapy. [RMNB]
• With six games left, Ovechkin has 48 goals. Can he pot two more to make the half-century? [CSNW]
• The next generation of Caps players are working their way up, and looking good while doing so:
  • The team announced that they have signed their 2013 second-round pick, defenseman Madison Bowey, to a three year ELC beginning in the 2014-2015 season. [@m_bows4, NHL.com, RMNB, Northland News]
  • Andre Burakovsky had a stellar March; so stellar he was named the OHL Player of the Month. [OHL]
  • Caleb Herbert played his first pro game last night with Hershey.  He tallied a primary assist to Jeff Taffe on his second pro shift, scored the game-tying goal on his very first shot, and was named the #1 star in the victory which put Hershey back into playoff contention. Story. Book. [Patriot-News, SHoE, @ScottStuccio]
• Get well soon, JoeB. We miss your dulcet tones! [RMNB]
• Finally, happy 31st birthday to Joey Crabb. Today is also the one-year anniversary of the Forsberg/Erat trade. Discuss.