Your savory breakfast links:
- Strength, discipline, structure… and urgency. Caps GM Brian MacLellan has been assembling his team with an eye to winning now. [WaPo, Monumental (video)]
- Today’s Camp schedule (per Caps Today): Groups White, Red, and Blue have now morphed into Groups Langway, Stevens, and Hatcher:
- Group Langway will practice at 9:30 on the Arlington rink and scrimmage at 10:15 on the Capitals rink.
- Group Stevens will scrimmage at 10:15 on the Capitals rink and practice at 11:00 on the Arlington rink.
- Group Hatcher will practice at 12:45 on the Arlington rink and practice at 1:30 on the Capitals rink.
- News and notes from Day Two of training camp:
- Podium time. [Monumental video (Trotz, Niskanen, Alzner, Roy, Johansson, Burakovsky (and again)]
- Capturing the sights and sounds of Day Two/FanFest. [Caps OT (Oshie, Carlson, Locker and Brent Johnson, cute kiddies 1, 2), and photos from Day One (RMNB)]
- Andre Burakovsky has earned his centerman stripes to begin the preseason, most likely on a line with Marcus Johansson and Garrett Mitchell. [WaPo, CSNMA]
- Hmm. Per the players, the 3-on-3 overtime format is probably going to be unpopular with defensemen and popular with skilled forwards and teams that feature goalies who can handle the puck. [CSNMA]
- An assist to MJ90 and a goal from Derek Roy gave the coaching staff a glimpse of what they were hoping to see from T.J. Oshie – the ability to both create and finish. [CSNMA]
- Justin Peters is ready for battle. [WaPo]
- Nate Schmidt is eyeing the chance to earn his first full year on an NHL roster, and has this to say about his potential/likely third pairing partner, Dmitry Orlov: “We can move pucks extremely well and extremely quickly, and we’re going to have a lot of opportunities to get up the ice and to do our thing. I think for both of us this year we are going to surprise some people with how well we are going to play with each other and how well we are going to assimilate between now and the first game.” [Dump-n-Chase]
- Finally, happy 65th birthday to Bill Riley.