Your savory breakfast links:
- Day Two of DevCamp kicks off with Team White on the ice at 9:15 this morning and Team Red skating at 11:30.
- Of course, before there can be Day Two, there was Day One, which included more than a little talk about non-prospect matters:
- Barry Trotz defends his new defensemen… [Monumental (video), Puck Daddy, WaPo, NHL.com, CSNW, RMNB]
- … is looking forward to strengthening the ties between Washington and Hershey… [WaPo, Patriot-News, CSNW]
- … and talks… marriage? [CSNW (video)]
- Oh, and expect Tom Wilson to be ready for camp. [WaPo]
- A man, a plan, a defense, Todd Reirden. [Dump N’ Chase]
- First-round pick Jakub Vrana can’t stop smiling. [Monumental (video), RMNB]
- Madison Bowey and Pheonix Copley are blogging (which, as we all know, is the pinnacle of human communication). [Capitals, Capitals]
- Get to know Shane Gersich. [Capitals Overtime]
- Nathan Walker apparently gets asked if he owns a kangaroo with some frequency. Because he’s from Australia. And they have kangaroos there. In Australia. [Monumental (video), Caps Outsider]
- Walker and Andre Burakovsky stopped by CSN to chat with BMitch because reasons. (Also, psst… Walker isn’t Australian-born.) [CSNW]
- Camp invitee Eliot Antonietti is a mountain of a man and can grow an absurd beard. [RMNB]
- Other notes and scrums from Day One. [Monumental video (Rinkside Update, Burakovsky, Vrana, Barber, Bowey, Djoos), Peerless, Stars & Sticks]
- Back to Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen, the Caps now have something on the blueline that they haven’t had in a long time: options. [RMNB, with our take from last week here]
- The Orpik deal will also give Caps fans something they actually have had plenty of over the years: a largely undeserving whipping boy. [Puck Daddy, with more on Orpik at BrooksLaichyear]
- The Niskanen-Reirden bond is a strong one. [NBC4]
- And say what you want about the deals the team made on July 1, but don’t call the Caps “cheap.” [WaPo]
- Oh, and GMBM is clearly no GMGM. [DSP]
- Alex Ovechkin looks at ladies and misses Mikhail Grabovski already. [RMNB and RMNB, respectively]
- Might Al Montoya have been a better fit as a back-up to Braden Holtby than Justin Peters? [NHL.com]
- How Nate Schmidt got his groove on. [SCTimes]
- Sizing up the Metro Division. [Stars & Sticks]
- Not breaking news: being a sports fan in this town hasn’t been easy, especially if you’ve been partial to the local pucksters. [Best Tickets]
- A guide to Caps info on the Intertubes. [THW]
- Happy 63rd birthday to Leif Svensson, happy 58th birthday to Greg Smith, and happy 51st birthday to Mike Ridley.
- Finally, Bryan Murray has won more games behind the Caps’ bench than anyone else in franchise history, but let’s hope he’s got one much more significant win left in him as he battles cancer. Godspeed, Coach. [Puck Daddy, CSNW]