Your savory breakfast links:
- ICYMI yesterday, we had tons of playoff-related content prepared for your viewing/watching/listening pleasure:
- Take a look at the play that led to the insurance marker on Thursday (and wrap the snark around you like a cozy, familiar blanket). [Rink]
- Ahead of Game 1, we looked at how the two teams might deploy the troops at five on five; now we see how accurate those predictions were. [Rink]
- What worked, what didn’t. [Rink]
- Covering some of the topics of conversation following Game 1. [Rink]
- Our own Jon Press paid a visit to the PDOcast to preview this first-round series…[Rink]
- …while our own Jason Rogers checked in with CSN to discuss the opener. [Rink]
- Previews of Game 2 at Verizon Center from NHL.com, AP, Caps Outsider, NoVa Caps, and as always, be sure to visit our SBN pals over at Broad Street Hockey for the other side of tonight’s matchup.
- News and notes from yesterday’s practice. [Monumental video (Caps: Trotz, Holtby, Beagle, Orpik, Williams, Wilson, Rinkside Update/Johansson; Flyers: Hakstol, locker room)]
- The biggest news out of the Flyers’ room is that forward Sean Couturier is out for at least two weeks after suffering an AC injury on this Alex Ovechkin hit. [WaPo, WashTimes, CSNMA, BSH, AP (and again), Philly.com
- Losing Couturier is potentially a huge blow to the Flyers’ chances in this series. [WaPo]
- Nate Schmidt doesn’t seem to mind that he logged such little ice time Thursday night. [RMNB]
- Flyers’ goalie Steve Mason would like to formally request that his team stop taking penalties. And for the rest of us to stop laughing at his naivete, probably. [Delco Times]
- Blanked in Game 1, the Flyers feel they need to tap into their creativity a bit more to crack through Braden Holtby and the Caps. [WaPo, Philly.com]
- Evgeny Kuznetsov has more creativity than all of them combined… and just when you think you’ve figured out his moves, he comes up with new ones. [WaPo]
- Holtby recorded his third-career playoff shutout, and was his usual playoff-brilliant self, but there was something different than in the past and it was thanks to the team in front of him. [NBC4]
- All that hand-wringing about the Caps and whether they’d be able to “flip the switch” after so many meaningless games… and hey look at that, they did. [WaPo]
- They’d be well served to avoid a lot of the physical, between-whistles nonsense that the Flyers are going to try and incite. [WaPo]
- Joining his third team in the last two years, Daniel Winnik has fit seamlessly into the Caps’ lineup and locker room. [WaPo]
- Back in the NHL and taking his place on a contending team, Mike Richards is thoroughly enjoying hockey after his brush with the law last summer. [SLAM]
- A few leftovers from the series opener. [Dump ‘n Chase, BSH]
- The Caps’ penalty kill had to come up big, and do so multiple times, early in Game 1. [WaPo, NoVa Caps]
- Of course, some of that success might have been related to what some see as a sputtering power play. [Pattison Ave, THW]
- The Flyers could have gotten more power-play work in had Wayne Simmonds not fallen into a trap set by young Tom Wilson. [BSH, Caps Outsider]
- Meanwhile Wilson had some thoughts on a couple of the Flyers’ pests. [CSNMA]
- Five stats that tell the story of the Caps’ Game 1 win. [CSNMA]
- Rank ’em! [Rink]
- The Stingrays kicked off their postseason run in style last night, becoming the first ECHL team to record 100 postseason victories with a series-opening win over Kalamazoo. [Caps Outsider, Live5]
- Congrats to Chris Bourque, who has been awarded the AHL’s Les Cunningham award as the League’s MVP. [AHL, Caps Outsider, Salem News, ABC27]
- Former Cap Bobby Carpenter is gearing up to run his first marathon next week when the 120th Boston Marathon gets underway. #BostonStrong. [Salem News]
- The best way to hook those loyal fans is to get ’em while they’re young. Like fresh out of the womb young. [WaPo, Puck Daddy]
- Finally, happy 53rd birthday to Garry Galley.