Monday Caps Clips: The World Comes to Washington

Your savory breakfast links:

• Four World Cup teams are on their way to Washington:
• Team Sweden and Team Finland arrived yesterday - on the same plane. [Aftonbladet, YLE.fi]
• Tre Kronor got its skate on at Kettler Sunday evening:

• Plus some great photos from Sweden’s practice. [NoVa Caps]
• Sweden’s Rickard Rakell did not travel with the team, as he has been hospitalized with an undisclosed illness. Perhaps Marcus Johansson could get a call. [@ikhurshudyan]
• Suomi (and Team USA, separately) will practice today at the Verizon Center. Please note: All practices at Kettler and the Phonebooth are CLOSED to the public. [Caps Today]
• Over in Pittsburgh, Team Russia completed a nine hour flight from Prague and dropped the puck for practice at 8pm:

• Russia is feeling the heat. “...[T]he exploits of Alex Ovechkin, Artemi Panarin and a dozen other dazzling wizards sometimes belie the reality that Russia’s overall talent pool has dried to disconcerting levels, something that’s become unmistakable at events where the planet’s best players gather.” [Sportsnet]
• Feeling less heat - Dmitry Orlov, who evinces a lack of concern about his contract status with the Caps. “We’ll see,” sez he. [WaPo, CSNMA]
• Russian hockey commentator Sergey Gimaev (think of him as Russia’s Don Cherry) says Alex Ovechkin is not playing at full strength. But he thinks Ovi will flip the switch when the WC games start to count. [Soviet Sport]
• In which Nikita Kucherov escapes injury and seeks chemistry with linemates Ovechkin and Kuznetsov. [WCH2016.com]
• It’s all kind of weird for Team Russia as they set up shop in the Flightless Fowls’ dressing room. [WCH2016]
• Closer to home, Andre Burakovsky and Brett Connolly are closer to home. [RMNB]
• Speaking of Connolly, what should we expect of him this season? [Peerless]
• Finally, happy 68th birthday to Joe Lundrigan.