Friday Caps Clips

Your savory breakfast links:

• “When things need to be said, and Nick speaks, you listen, because he cares,” T.J. Oshie said. “He thinks about what he says and he says the right things at a lot of the right moments. It’s not very often, but when something needs to be said, Nick does a good job of saying it, and people listen.” [Rink]
• Backstrom is not backing down at the Worlds, scoring his second goal of the tournament in a 3-1 semifinal win over Switzerland. [RMNB]
• Philipp Grubauer’s tournament is over, but his 48 saves in a 2-1 Germany loss to Canada earned him player of the game honors and a nifty trending hashtag: #GrubMauer. [RMNB]
• The Russians worked over the Czechs, setting up the semis - CAN vs. RUS and SWE vs. FIN. [NoVa Caps]
• Whither Ovi? The heaviest question of a heavy offseason - what to do with the Caps’ captain. [WaPo]
• Trade him! To the team I write about a lot! [THW]
• Trade him! To these five other teams, probably. Maybe. [Stars and Sticks]
• Release him! To return to Mother Russia and the KHL. [S&S]
• Karl Alzner is breathing the rarefied air of unrestricted free agency. [CSNMA]
• For T.J. Oshie, Washington was a great fit, and he’d like to be back, but. [WashTimes]
• Balancing pressure with joy. It’s harder than you think. [CSNMA]
• A fond and heartfelt farewell to the 2016-17 Hershey Bears. Sniffle. [NoVa Caps, plus Game Seven photos]
• Finally, с днем ​​рождения to Eвгений Kузнецовva. He turns 25 today.