Thursday Caps Clips

Your savory breakfast links:

• Or, in Alex Ovechkin's world, "Wednesday":
  • Receive a seventh Kharlamov Award, given to the best Russian enhaelovski as voted on by all of the Russian enhaelovskis. [sovsport.ru, NoVa Caps Fans]
    
  • Receive the official certificate (suitable for framing!) designating a newly-discovered asteroid as "257261 Ovechkin" from Leonid Elenin, the astronomer who discovered it. [The full-length video at this link (here's the GoogleTrans) is worth your time even if you don't speak Russian. The astronomer portion starts at about 21:10, and the pretty blond lady at 11:30 is Valery Kharlamov's daughter, there with Valery's granddaughters.]
  • When asked to name the teammates for a fictional and fanciful asteroid-defeating hockey team, go right for the top and name Владимир Путин as your team captain. Because why not. [RMNB]
  • And oh yeah, announce that Pyeongchang 2018 is happening for realz. [TASS, NoVa Caps Fans]
• Today in "The Search for a Third Line Centerman":
  • Replacing Eric Fehr. [Rink]
  • Rumo(u)r roundup. [THN]
• Could this be the Caps' year? [Stars & Sticks]
• Checking in on the Caps' top-pairing defensemen. [Stars & Sticks]
• Rankings, ranked:
  • Ranking on THN's 2015-2016 player rankings. [Puck Daddy]
  • Cities ranked by their uniform rankings. Washington middle-of-the-roads it, I guess. Comity! [Uni-Watch via ESPN]
  • Oh hai there Braden Holtby, sliding into the top-25 fantasies. Er, rankings of fantasy players. [theScore]
  • The NHLPA Rookie Showcase is a ranking of sorts, and Madison Bowey is headed for Toronto on September 1. [PHT]
• We vote Andre Burakovsky. [Dobber Hockey]
• From the Caps on Holiday files:
  • Speaking of Li'l Burra, looking good, kid. [picbi, instagram]
  • Jakub Vrana is either training for a new season or getting a mechanical engineering degree. [@hfl_tc]
  • From the Former Cap on Holiday file, here's Neuvy taking pucks from a puck Gatling gun. (He's at the same facility as Vrana.) [@hfl_tc]
  • Also from the Former Cap on Holiday file, congrats to new papa Sasha Semin and his wife Alena, who welcomed their son Alexander Alexandrovich yesterday in Raleigh. [sovsport.ru]
  • T.J. Oshie was helping to raise up a new crop of Minnesota hockey hopefuls. [@mnhockeycamps, @tjoshie77]
  • Tom Wilson's photo finish FTW. [@tom_wilso]
  • Dmitry Orlov trains back home with fellow Novokuznetskite Sergei Bobrovsky, and also gives him a hand with Bob's "master class" for baby goalies. [sports.ru]
  • Kevin Elgestal is headed stateside for rookie camp and main camp, and Frölunda officials are not happy about it. [Expressen (via GoogleTrans)]
• Finally, happy 52nd birthday to Shawn Cronin.