Your savory breakfast links:
- The battle is joined: The Caps’ quest for the Cup starts in the Verizon Center on Thursday night at 7:00 Eastern versus the Flyers. More details below.
- Recaps and other assorted musings on last night’s shutout loss from us, Vogs, Monumental video (Trotz, Holtby, Ovechkin, Schmidt, Johansson, Boudreau, Ducks room), NHL.com, AP, WaPo, CSNMA (gamer, rewind), NoVa Caps and RMNB, and from the visitors’ bench, Anaheim Calling.
- Gongrats and gifts, plus a nifty silver twig, were given to Justin Williams on the occasion of his 1000th NHL game. Well done, Stick. [Monumental (video), RMNB, WaPo, WashTimes, AP, CSNMA]
- ‘Sup? Alex Ovechkin took a stroll around the concourse in the first intermission, checking out the Phone Booth vibe and high-fiving fans. [CSNMA, SB Nation]
- Of course he had the time available because he was a healthy scratch for the game, along with Nicklas Backstrom, Brooks Orpik and John Carlson … [CSNMA, @ikhurshudyan, @TedLeonsis]
- … and Braden Holtby got a baseball cap and a seat on the bench. Marty Brodeur will have to share for at least one more season. [WaPo, RMNB]
- The final horn for Game 82 heralded the beginning of the second season and sh*t just got real:
- The League announced the first round schedule. #CapsFlyers play in DC on Thursday and Saturday. [Caps Today, WaPo, NVC, CSNMA]
- The Caps can finally get into Meaningful Games mode. [USA Today]
- Caps say: Oh hai there Philadelphia. Bring. It. On. [CSNMA]
- Philly sez: Oh hai there Caps. We. Will. [Courier-Post]
- Dave Hakstol has his squad playing pretty well. [philly.com]
- Caps in 5. [ESPN]
- The Rink has its very own Bracket Challenge, and everyone is invited to join in (you too, lurkers!) [FanPost]
- Stick around the Rink as we’ll have playoff preview content rolling right up to puck drop.
- Let’s not forget how awesome this season was:
- Ovigoals, all fifty (50) of ’em. [CSNMA]
- The Holtbeast’s beast mode season. [NBC4]
- Holt-by! Holt-by! Holt-by! The team (hearts) their netminder. [RMNB]
- Step aside, Ovi. There’s a new points leader in the room. Evgeny Kuznetsov has made himself right at home. [Caps Outsider]
- This JW14 timeline shows his eventful season:
Fantastic first year as a Cap. Thank you #14 @JustinWilliams pic.twitter.com/YJLXdXtAGc
— Jessica DeLancey (@JessDeLancey628) April 11, 2016
- OilersNation notes that there is a nearly-complete squad of former Oilmen playing in the postseason this year, including Jason Chimera, the player they gave up on too soon, and Taylor Chorney, improbably. [Cult of Hockey]
- Gongrats to Caps prospect forward Shane Gersich, who scored first for North Dakota in the Frozen Four Final and is now a NCAA National Champion. [@NCAAIceHockey]
- Finally, happy 28th birthday to Ben Clymer, happy 65th to Ron Jones, and happy 46th to Trevor Linden.
- One more – The Japers’ Rink staff would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to all the folks we regularly (and irregularly!) link here. It has been our great privilege to experience the 2015-2016 season through your words, photos and videos, and we look forward to sharing the second season and beyond.