Your savory breakfast links:
- Recaps and other assorted musings on last night’s OT loss from us, Vogs, Monumental video (Caps: Trotz, Burakovsky, Carlson, Backstrom, Schmidt, Holtby; Flyers: Hakstol, Giroux),
NHL.com, AP, WaPo, CSNMA, Frankovic, Peerless, DSP, RMNB, Friends in Cold Places, StarsandSticks, Caps Outsider, Philly.com, and Broad Street Hockey.- Congrats to Karl Alzner: Iron Man. [Monumental video, WaPo, NoVa Caps]
- Just as the Caps get one player back, another falls, as Marcus Johansson left the game with an upper-body injury. [WaPo, RMNB]
- Last night marked the beginning of this year’s Courage Caps sale, the annual tradition that helps raise funds for families of those who have died fighting for our country. [WaPo, NoVa Caps]
- News came out postgame that the team has opted to pull Alex Ovechkin from this weekend’s All-Star festivities, citing a nagging lower-body injury for the captain. [Caps, Monumental video (Ovechkin), NHL.com, Puck Daddy, THN, WaPo, CSNMA (and again), Sportsnet, The Score, RMNB, AP]
- His oft-overlooked linemate is still going, though, thanks in part to Barry Trotz’s tireless lobbying. [WaPo]
- The Caps are putting up historically good numbers this season – but are they cut out for the playoffs?[NHL.com, Rink]
- Of course, now that they’ve opened up double-digit leads in the division and the conference, the trick will be to stay dominant without getting bored. [WaPo]
- NHL coaches (mostly) agree: the Caps, and their individual pieces, are pretty darn good. [TSN.ca]
- Ovechkin’s reach as a role model has helped boost youth hockey participation in the area – including creating the future superstars of women’s hockey. [USA Hockey]
- The Caps-Flyers rivalry is one that goes back decades, to their Patrick Division days. [NoVa Caps]
- Taking a look at the unheralded players on every Metropolitan Division team. [Pensburgh]
- News and notes from yesterday’s pre-game skate. [Dump ‘n Chase, Monumental video (Trotz, Carlson, Rinkside Update/Schmidt)]
- John Carlson is BACK! [Friends in Cold Places]
- Getting to play beside Ovechkin and Backstrom has to be like winning the hockey lottery, and T.J. Oshie has the golden ticket. [WaPo]
- Oshie is part of a pretty magical power-play unit with those two (and a few others), as well. [Special Teams Project]
- After months of forced time off, Mike Richards is starting his long road back to an NHL career right here in DC – and no matter what he says, facing his former team last night meant something. [Philly.com, CSNMA]
- Speaking of Richards, his court hearing, originally scheduled for this weekend, has been adjourned until next month. [WaPo, AP]
- Last night marked the first time that former teammates Braden Holtby and Michal Neuvirth faced each other at opposite ends of the non-practice rink. [RMNB]
- Amazingly enough, the majority of NHL coaches still like the whole coaches’ challenge thing. [TSN.ca]
- Checking in with goaltending prospect Vitek Vanecek. [StarsandSticks]
- Finally, happy 67th birthday to Jack Egers, and happy 50th to Michal Pivonka.