Your savory breakfast links:
- Players who need to step up, strengths and weaknesses, predictions, and a look at just how much we give a f%&k about goal differential in our first playoff roundtable. [Rink]
- Three things we were talking about yesterday when we were talking about the Caps. [Rink]
- We’ve got your first-round schedule right here! [Rink]
- Making the playoffs for the first time in a non-bubble world means a lot to Dylan Strome. [Monumental]
- The whole pressure-filled, must-win atmosphere of the playoffs…yeah, that’s pretty familiar for these Washington Capitals. [WaPo]
- The Brothers Lindgren are ready for a “nerve-wracking” head-to-head matchup. [NHL]
- Previews, matchups, and predictions, predictions, predictions. (Hey, guess how many people predicted the Caps would win this series? Go ahead. Guess.) [NHL, ESPN, The Guardian, Lohud]
- Sure, this Capitals team probably isn’t expected to go far and it’s surprising that they’re even in this position. Who cares? It’s fun, let’s go – house money, baby. [WaPo]
- Whether or not they “deserve” to be here, there’s something special about this group that got them to this point. [THN]
- Alex Ovechkin has done this playoff thing a time or two. For Hendrix Lapierre, it’s his first at the NHL level. [RDS]
- Also making his NHL playoff debut: a mustached, 30-year-old former backup netminder who no one saw coming – and just carried his team to the postseason. [CP]
- Lindgren was, without a doubt, one of the Caps’ most important players this season. [S&S]
- Updates from yesterday’s practice (and how good does Coach Carbery look in front of the snazzy new playoff backdrop?) [Caps video (Carbery, Carlson, Dowd, Wilson, Caps365), THN, Fox5DC]
- 16 players who will shape this year’s quest for Lord Stanley. [The Score]
- From the other side of this series:
- Need a primer on at least some of the storylines heading into this year’s postseason? Wysh has got you covered. [ESPN]
- The Caps have summoned goalie Mitchell Gibson to add some netminding depth. [Caps]
- Six of the biggest surprises from a somewhat weird NHL season. [The Score]
- As the Nationals celebrate the five-year anniversary of their World Series win, a flashback to Joe B…shark. Doo doo doo doo doo doo. [Monumental]
- Finally, happy 74th birthday to Mike Lampman, happy 40th to Jamie Hunt, and happy 32nd to Dylan McIlrath!