Your savory slightly sour breakfast links:
- Ah, Breakdown Day. The Narrative pretty well captured the spirit of the thing. [Rink]
- Exit interviews. [Monumental video (Trotz, Ovechkin, Backstrom, Holtby, Beagle, Alzner, Niskanen, Carlson, Orpik, all others posted here)
- Injury reports. It’s possible Karl Alzner may need surgery. [RMNB, WaPo, WashTimes, CSNMA, TSS]
- Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom want the fans to know that next year won’t be the same old same old. [CSNMA, RMNB]
- Matt Niskanen is in pain, but not the physical kind. [theScore]
- Justin Williams won’t sugarcoat the fail. [CSNMA, WaPo]
- “It’s like this, see.” Brooks Orpik ‘splains his costly Game Six double minor, as best he can. [WaPo, CSNMA]
- Aftermath:
- Picking up the pieces… [DSP]
- … and trying to figure out what the hell just happened. [CBS DC, WashTimes]
- Takeaways. [Stars and Sticks]
- Peerless took a long look at this Caps-Pens series, and earns the “if you click on only one link, make it this one” tag for his troubles. (But really, please to be clicking on all the links.) [Peerless]
- Players, fans, and newspaper columnists are all still searching for answers. [WaPo]
- “Give up on your dreams,” CSN’s Michael Jenkins advised, as he downed a festive adult beverage on-air. [CSNMA, Busted Coverage, Awful Announcing]
- The “window” discussion creeps back into the conversation. [WashTimes, CSNMA]
- The Great One has the Gr8’s back. [Edmonton Journal]
- Looking ahead:
- Evgeny Kuznetsov hopefully learned some things to make him a more effective player next year. [PHT]
- Ovechkin, Kuznetsov, and Dmitry Orlov are expected to play for Team Russia on Saturday in their match against Switzerland. [lenta.ru]
- Team Sweden officials are a bit out of sorts as Nick Backstrom has declined their invite to Moscow without a suitable explanation. [Aftonbladet]
- And in happier news, the Hershey Bears lead their series 3 games to 2 as they prepare to eliminate the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Baby Pens at the Giant Center tonight, and the South Carolina Stingrays open their Eastern Conference Final series vs. the (Pens ECHL affiliate) Wheeling Nailers tonight as well.
- Finally, happy 31st birthday to Jaroslav Halak.