Your savory breakfast links:
- Congrats are in order for Braden Holtby , named the NHL’s Second Star o’ the Month for December. Throw in November, and he’s been the Lig’s second star for fully two-thirds of the 2015-16 season. [NHL.com, Rink, WaPo, CSNMA, RMNB, Barstool Sports, WTOP]
- Previews of the brawl in Beantown from Vogs (plus game notes), NHL.com, AP and Peerless, and be sure to visit our SB Nation pals at Stanley Cup of Chowder for the other side of tonight’s matchup.
- Boston reassigned David Pastrnak to the AHL P-Bruins after he returned from the WJC. [CSNNE]
- After losing consecutive games, focused Caps are focused… [WashTimes, WaPo]
- … and after an excruciating loss on home ice at the Winter Classic, serious Bruins are serious. [Boston Herald]
- The dot, Caps. Own it. [Boston Globe]
- Notes and assorted whatnot from yesterday’s practice out at Kettler:
- In general. [Monumental video (Trotz, Ovechkin, Backstrom, Rinkside Update/Wilson)]
- John Carlson donned his skates and tracksuit pants for an early twirl on the ice, but did not stay for practice. [CSNMA, FiCP]
- The team announced that both Carlson and Brooks Orpik will travel with the team on this three-game roadie. [WaPo]
- “Thanks, Mean O!” [CSNMA]
- Not too many down arrows for a week in which the Caps dropped two games. [Rink]
- Evgeny Kuznetsov is more than a passing fancy. [Rink]
- When Barry Trotz agreed to helm the Caps back in the summer of 2014, he and Brian MacLellan assembled a long to-do list. Then they tackled it – one item at a time. [WaPo]
- As the injury list grows, the “do the Caps need to make a trade?” chatter gets louder. [Fansided, CSNMA, NVC]
- Power ranking the All-Star invites by division. [Sporting News]
- The medal games at the WJC are set, with Finland facing Russia for goalie gold and USA facing Sweden for Bronze:
- Caps prospect Ilya Samsonov saved 26 of 27 shots to backstop Russia to a 2-1 victory over Team USA… [theScore, NVC]
- … and here’s a look at how he did it… [Caps Goalies]
- … while wearing an Assassin’s Creed bucket. [RMNB]
- Earlier, Team Czech Republic pulled Vitek Vanecek after he gave up two goals to USA in the quarterfinals. Did they make the right call? [Caps Goalies]
- Meet the Verizon Center organist! [Caps Outsider]
- Swedes doing Swedish thing with Swedish media peeps. [RMNB]
- Finally, happy 28th birthday to Mathieu Perreault (who was awesome to a tiny fan who was also celebrating a birthday), happy 48th to Joé Juneau, and happy 41st to Mike Grier, whose brother Chris was introduced yesterday as the new general manager of the Miami Dolphins.
- One more – Alex Ovechkin is four goals from his first 500, and CSN put together some great video packages documenting his career. The first runs tonight and here’s a preview. [CSNMA]