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Your savory breakfast of champions links:
- The Washington Capitals raised their Stanley Cup banner on Wednesday night with pomp, circumstance, and swagger. It was perfect. [RMNB, NHL, NBC Sports (and pics), WaPo (and again), Pre-Ceremony Hype Video, Celebration Montage Video, Banner Raising Video] Note: Still looking for the full videos of John Walton’s speech, player introductions, and Ted Leonsis’ speech. They were all terrific!
- Recaps and other assorted musings on last night’s statement, season-opening, shutout triumph from us, Vogs, (plus game notes), Caps video (Reirden, locker room), NHL, PHT, NBCSN (gamer, 4 reasons, inside the numbers), WaPo, AP, WashTimes, Frankovic, NoVa Caps (and again), RMNB, and from the home side, Boston Globe and SCoC.
- Congrats to Coach Reirden on the occasion of his first victory as an NHL head coach. He challenged his squad to compete, and they did. [NBCSW]
- Congrats to Nicklas Backstrom on the occasion of his 800th (and 801st, and 802nd) NHL point. Assassin. [RMNB, @CompleteHkyNews]
- Congrats to Alex Ovechkin, whose 608th career goal moved him into a tie for 18th overall with former Cap Dino Ciccarelli. [RMNB]
- WTF Brad Marchand. [CBS Sports, WEEI, NBCSW]
- In case you missed the Caps’ Red Carpet festivities, you can un-miss them. [FiCP, NoVa Caps]
We're back on the red carpet. Join @RobCarlinNBCS and @MayHockeyNBCS RIGHT NOW to preview the home-opener! https://t.co/dHGgOrABMj
— NBC Sports Capitals (@NBCSCapitals) October 3, 2018
- Oh, and the Cup took one last glorious spin around the city. [NBCSW]
- In less rapturous news, Tom Wilson had his hearing with the Department of Player Safety. Pending the results of the appeal that the Caps are intending to file, Wilson has been suspended for twenty (20) games. Yikes. [NHL, theScore, NoVa Caps, FiCP, AP]
- The Rink editorial board did some pregame prognosticatin’. [Rink, Rink Radio]
- Finally:
For those of us who have been there since the beginning , it’s about f***ing time !!! pic.twitter.com/5ecSn0YmPT
— Al Koken (@RealSmokinAl) October 4, 2018
- One more - I don’t know why the NHL made Pittsburgh the back half of an opening week back-to-back, but they did. There’s probably a preview somewhere, but whatever. For the record, Joe Beninati and Craig Laughlin wore their Stanley Cup rings to the banner-raising last night, and they are wearing their rings tonight in Steeltown, because reasons.