Your savory breakfast links:
- Things we were talking about when talking about the Caps yesterday. [Rink]
- Tom Wilson avoided a suspension but was fined $2,403.67 for his knee-on-knee hit on Conor Sheary Thursday night. [Rink, WaPo, WashTimes, CSNMA, Puck Daddy, RMNB, NoVa Caps, Tribune-Review, Pensburgh]
- Is a fine enough to make him curb his reckless ways? [NoVa Caps]
- Previews of Game 2 from Vogs, NHL.com, AP, Caps Outsider, FiCP, and as always, be sure to swing by our SB Nation pals over at Pensburgh for the other side of tonight’s matchup.
- After a relatively quiet Game 1, everyone expects Sidney Crosby to be better in Game 2… but he’ll have to go through Nicklas Backstrom, first. [NHL.com, AP, CSNMA, Tribune-Review]
- Picking favorites in the second round based on advanced stats vs. the eye test, and their bastard offspring, logic. [THN]
- Looking at how Alex Ovechkin and Crosby stack up against one another. [NESN]
- Click through for Elliotte Friedman’s 30 Thoughts, including a great story from the last time the Caps and Pens danced in the playoffs. [Sportsnet]
- Is there a correlation between hits and puck possession? The players weigh in. [Post-Gazette]
- News and notes from yesterday’s optional skate:
- In general. [Dump ‘n Chase, Monumental video (Caps: Trotz, Orpik, Chimera; Pens: Sullivan, locker room), Post-Gazette, NoVa Caps (pics)]
- If you couldn’t tell by his hat trick the other night, T.J. Oshie is clicking with his linemates… y’know, now that he’s shooting the puck. [WaPo]
- Third-line Andre Burakovsky is actually working pretty well, too. [WaPo]
- As predicted, those mean, horrible Caps are already beating up on the poor defenseless Penguins. [Tribune-Review, Pens Labyrinth]
- The Pens’ coach will have some decisions to make regarding a couple of his struggling blueliners. [Tribune-Review]
- Ditto for Barry Trotz, who has Dmitry Orlov on a short list after a miscue and an overall bad (albeit brief) game the other night. [WaPo, CSNMA, RMNB]
- Two years after he left Pittsburgh, Brooks Orpik is facing off against a lot of new players. [WaPo]
- And apparently when he left, he took the playoff overtime success with him. That contract’s not looking so bad NOW, is it? [The Score]
- The Pens think they can improve, the Caps expect a long series, and ulcer medications fly off the shelves in two cities. [Post-Gazette, Tribune-Review]
- Matt Murray experienced his first playoff loss in his young career, but is ready to move past it. [Tribune-Review]
- Mike Milbury is saying (mostly) nice things about Ovechkin and sounding sincere and it is downright freaky. [WaPo]
- The Pens’ defensemen have decided they need to keep it simple, stupid. [Tribune-Review]
- A few leftovers from the overtime th/.riller in Game 1. [Dump ‘n Chase, Peerless, CSNMA, FiCP, Stars and Sticks, RMNB, Pensblog, Pensburgh]
- What worked, what didn’t. [Rink, Peerless]
- One game in and this series has already turned nasty. [ESPN]
- Both sides took some positives out of that game… [CSNMA]
- …and revealed some potential negatives. [WaPo, Post-Gazette]
- Jay Beagle: Hockey Unicorn. [WaPo, RMNB]
- Former NHL ref Kerry Fraser weighs in on the Wilson non-penalty and the Oshie goal. [TSN]
- Rank ’em! [Rink]
- Embarrassing doesn’t even begin to describe it. Let’s not do this kind of thing, okay, fans? [Outsports, WaPo, Deadspin, RMNB]
- Thursday wasn’t the first time Oshie stepped up and played the hero in a critical game. [THW]
- Eight players to watch in the second round. [Yardbarker]
- The draft lottery will take place ahead of tonight’s game; the two captains have a pretty good idea of what that’s like. [National Post]
- The Caps will head to Kansas City this fall to face the Blues in a preseason game. [Caps, Blues, WaPo, CSNMA, Kansas City Star]
- Former Caps bench boss Bruce Boudreau is once again looking for work, and a few of his former players – in both rooms – talk about their old coach. [Puck Daddy, CSNMA, Post-Gazette]
- Take a look back at the best and worst from the first round. [PDL]
- Down Goes Brown discovers yet another gem in the endless treasure trove that was the Caps’ music videos of the ’80s and ’90s. [Vice]
- Finally, happy 50th birthday to Jeff Brown, and happy 59th to Dave Parro.