Your savory breakfast links:
- Oh, you’re fans of a hockey team in the playoffs? Suckers. [WaPo]
- Congrats are in order for Braden Holtby, who joins Patrick Kane and Jamie Benn as the finalists for the Ted Lindsay Award, which is the League MVP award as voted on by the players. [Rink, NHL.com, WaPo, CSNMA, Sportsnet]
- The Caps are down three games to one – it’s do or die time, backs against the wall, staring into the abyss… pick any cliche you want but this game could be the last of the season:
- Not dead yet, dammit. [Rink]
- In which Rob Parker and John Walton chat about this 3-1 hole and what that Caps can do to climb out of it… [Rink on the Radio]
- … and Alan May also had some thoughts along those lines. [CSNMA (video)]
- It’s all on Alex Ovechkin, naturally. [Toronto Star (with Damien Cox advisory), ESPN]
- Okay, Justin Williams, leader of men. Get back to leadering already. And Evgeny Kuznetsov, return to scoring please and thank you. [Sun Media, NHL.com, ESPN]
- Five reasons the Caps are still in this thing. [RMNB, WaPo]
- One game at a time. [Stars & Sticks]
- Game Five grammar lesson. [Peerless]
- Jason Chimera is having kind of a sadz, but he’s going to play super hard tonight, you guys. [WashTimes]
- Previews of Game 5 from Vogs, NHL.com, AP, FiCP, and as always, the good people of Pensburgh have the bad side covered.
- News and notes from yesterday’s practice:
- In general. [Monumental video (Trotz, Ovechkin, Holtby, Kuznetsov, Chimera, McGuire (yes, him), Rinkside Update/Carlson)]
- Coach has changed up the forward lines a bit. Hello top-line Kuzya and welcome back Tre Kronor line. [WaPo, NHL.com, CSNMA, RMNB]
- Mike Richards sat out with the flu; Karl Alzner had a maintenance day. Both are expected to play tonight. [WaPo]
- The Hershey Bears got blanked by the Baby Pens in Game One on Wednesday; they returned the favor last night and their second-round series is tied at one apiece. [Caps Outsider, Bears Media]
- Caps prospect Tim McGauley had one assist as his Brandon Wheat Kings defeated the Seattle T-Birds in overtime to take a 1-0 lead in this best-of-seven League championship tournament. [WHL.ca]
- Finally, happy 60th birthday to Tony Cassolato and happy 37th to Lawrence Nycholat.