Caps Clips: What Comes Next?

Your savory breakfast links:

• In case you missed it, the Rink team weighed in on the 24-team proposal in a roundtable this week. [Rink]
• While NHLPA’s executive board approved the 24-team return-to-play proposal on Friday, there are plenty of other hoops to jump through before hockey can resume safely. [WaPo]
• Ilya Samsonov did an interview with Russian hockey site AllHockey, where he discussed his rookie NHL season, returning to Russia for quarantine, and more. [NoVa Caps]
• In a Revolution Ventures virtual roundtable on Friday, Ted Leonsis said that “innovation will be a necessity” if sports are to happen without fans. [The Athletic]
• New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced during a Sunday press conference that professional sports leagues can begin holding training camps in New York. [NY Post]
• How is the NHL going to handle immigration and visas for the league’s large group of international players? [The Athletic]
• Along with the playoff format, the NHL announced the new draft lottery procedure for this year. It’s a bit confusing, so let’s take a deep dive into it. [THN]
• Canada’s quarantine restrictions could pose a huge roadblock for the Canadian cities pushing to be hubs for the 24-team format. [CBC]
• Braden Holtby’s expiring contract has been a hot-button issue for the last few months. [LWoH]
• The NHL has reportedly told players that Phase 3 of the return-to-play plan, AKA training camps, would not start until at least July 10. [CBS Sports]
• Lars Eller joined ABC7 News’ Scott Abraham to chat about his family’s Health Cleanse Portal donation last week. [ABC7]
• The NHL officially announced the regular season awards on Thursday; congratulations are in order for Alex Ovechkin, who shares the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy with David Pastrnak! [NHL]
• Let’s take a look back at all of the career milestones various Capitals reached during the 2019-2020 season. [NoVa Caps]
• In the most recent edition of 31 Thoughts, Elliotte Friedman discusses the good, the bad, and the ugly about all of the return-to-play news from this week. [Sportsnet]
• Who might the Capitals call up as “black aces” to fill out an expanded playoff roster? [The Athletic]
• Well this is a fun one: what would happen if, theoretically, each of the 24 playoff teams could draft one player from the seven eliminated teams? [The Athletic]
• Caps’ prospect and OHL phenom Connor McMichael joined Mike Vogel on his latest Break the Ice podcast, where he discussed his explosive OHL season, quarantine, and more. [Podcast, NoVa Caps]
• Look! Ice! At MedStar!

• Don’t forget to keep up with our weekly puzzle series! So far, we have a Crossword, Word Search, Word Scramble, Spot the Difference 1, Spot the Difference 2, Build Your Own Lineup for $18, Nickname Matching. and Spot the Difference 3.
• Finally, happy birthday to these former Capitals who celebrated birthdays this week: Tom Rowe (64), Cody Eakin (29), Zach Sill (32), Michael Latta (29), Robert Picard (63), Matt Herr (44), Pat Riggin (61), Chris Felix (56), Doug Hicks (65) Jim Hrivnak (52), Gary Inness (71), Jack Lynch (68), Pat Peake (47), Jason Allison (45), and WIllie Brossart (71)!

This week’s entertainment: these incredibly endearing photos of Sergei Ovechkin meeting his little brother Ilya for the first time. Absolutely adorable.