Your let’s-try-this-again gameday links:
- Previews of Game 5 from NHL.com. ESPN980, AP, SLAM, NoVa Caps, FiCP, Caps Outsider
- A couple of topics of discussion yesterday. [Rink]
- Checking in with coach and Caps on a day off at Kettler. [Monumental video (Trotz, Alzner, Backstrom, Wilson)]
- T.J. Oshie discusses the chance to clinch on home ice. [ESPN980 (audio)]
- Luckily the Caps have been really good at coming back strong after losing this year. [WaPo]
- If they’re going to bounce back, they’ll need to do better at even strength. [WashTimes]
- Braden Holtby appears to be fine, but the Caps still – very sneakily – called up goalie Dan Ellis just in case. [WaPo]
- So what does that mean for Hershey’s goalie situation, and Ellis himself? [Caps Fans Report]
- Sounds like Tom Wilson is okay after taking a heavy hit in the third period Wednesday night, while Brooks Orpik’s status for tonight is still unknown. [WaPo, WashTimes]
- A couple of leftovers from Wednesday’s loss. [Dump ‘n Chase, BSH]
- That nasty crosscheck by Brayden Schenn to the leg of Evgeny Kuznetsov was not appreciated by the Caps, and rightly so. [WaPo, WashTimes, CSNMA]
- Great news on the injury front, as Scott Laughton has been released from the hospital after being stretchered off last game. [BSH, WaPo, AP, AFP]
- The Caps admit they lacked a bit of urgency in the first 40 minutes. [CSNMA]
- What worked, what didn’t. [Rink, Peerless]
- The Flyers tapped into a rare bit of discipline to help them get a win over the power-play powerful Caps. [CSNMA]
- Rank ’em. [Rink]
- Former Cap Michal Neuvirth pretty much stole the show on Wednesday and made sure there would be a Game 5. Gee, thanks, Neuvy. [National Post]
- Neuvirth and Braden Holtby have some history as former teammates and competitors for the Caps’ crease. (Spoiler: Holtby won.) [WaPo]
- Through four games, Claude Giroux has just one point – but he and the team are hoping that one point, picked up in their Game 4 win, is the start of something. [TSN, National Post, Morning Call]
- They may have avoided the sweep, but was that Game 4 win just delaying the inevitable? [THW]
- Both of these teams have experienced their fair share of injuries through four games. [FiCP]
- Remember those infamous flying wristbands from Game 3? Well, a few of the ones that didn’t hit the ice are being sold on eBay. Capitalism! [WaPo]
- This darn city is so broken that we start to panic, and media starts writing about panicking, when the team simply doesn’t sweep. Enough already. [WashTimes]
- The Flyers are too small. [Courier Post]
- Alex Ovechkin has a mighty sparkling resume, with a number of milestones happening this season… but he still wants that one thing he’s missing. [FiCP]
- The Hershey Bears kick off their first-round series against the Pirates tonight in Portland. [Caps Outsider]
- The Caps’ ECHL affiliate Stingrays find themselves in the same position as the big boys as they scored a late game-winner to take a 3-1 series lead over Kalamazoo. [Caps Outsider]
- Finally, happy 55th birthday to Bob Mason, happy 72nd to Bob Paradise, happy 22nd to Chandler Stephenson, and raise a glass to the memory of Peter Zezel, who would have been 51 today.