Your savory breakfast links:
- Alex Ovechkin captained Russia to World Championship gold with a 5-2 win over Finland. [IIHF.com, NHL.com, WaPo, Eye on Hockey]
- Via RMNB, he scored, cellied, manhandled his coach, and congratulated his fallen teammate – “Dima, you are also a champion!”
- The most important feature of this excellent photo set of Sbornaya playing and then celebrating its victory – with cameos by Russia president Vladimir Putin and Minister of Sport Vitaly Mutko – is that Ovi appears to have two fully functional legs (and perhaps even “different organs and muscles“). [championat.com (photos, and lots of them), R-Sport]
- Related: “[I]n such a situation I could only go out and play. I had no right to refuse.” The captain talks about his knee injury and how it was managed through the final three games. [R-Sport]
- All was quiet on the Capitals front yesterday; please continue the conversations on the team’s coach and GM searches. [Rink (Coach), Rink (GM)]
- With the Caps closing in on their coaching hire, filling the vacant GM post has to be close as well. [CBC]
- Nailed it? [@JapersRink]
- A look back at the year that was for Philipp Grubauer. [Peerless]
- Happy 38th birthday to Matt Herr (collegiate teammate of Mike Knuble, incidentally) and happy 54th to Pat Riggin.
- Finally, today and every day we honor the memories of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the defense of liberty, and salute those men and women standing watch even now around the globe.