Your savory breakfast links:
- Before you click on any link below, watch this ~4:30 video. “There has been change, and now there is hope.” [Sportsnet]
- Recaps and other assorted musings on last night’s win from us, Vogs, Monumental video (Trotz, Holtby, Latta, Williams, Carlson), NHL.com, AP, CP, WaPo, CSNMA (gamer, rewind), PHT, Peerless, Frankovic, DSP, RMNB, Stars and Sticks, NVC, Friends in Cold Places and from the visitors’ bench, Ottawa Sun, Sportsnet, and Silver Seven.
- Mr. Two-Point Night Michael Latta snagged the postgame interview and coveted Sportsnet towel. [Sportsnet]
- Alex Ovechkin went HAM, got Burgled. [theScore (video)]
- As good as the hockey was, the new third threads were better. #want [Caps Outsider]
- Tom Wilson was tracking the puck when everything went sideways. His hit on Curtis Lazar began a chain of events that ended in a match penalty, a three (!) minute major penalty, and barrels upon barrels of pixels expended in the discussion afterwards. [WaPo]
- First, the hit. This version has both the Ottawa and Washington feeds. [@somehockeyvideos via YT]
- Next, how the Sens got to be on a three-minute power play. [Scouting the Refs]
- Then it’s off to the rulebook to see how the refs arrived at a match penalty. [CSNMA]
- Wilson provided an excellent interview, describing the hit, his duties as defined by his coaches, and reminding everyone that hockey can be hard. And hard-hitting. [CSNMA, WashTimes]
- And it was off to the races for the hockey chatterati. [RMNB, Sportsnet (OTT coach view, WSH coach view), THN, CBC, @RealKyper]
- The Caps released their holiday video featuring Ovi as a deranged giant pink bunny rabbit plus other guys doing things but mostly giant pink bunny rabbit. [Monumental, RMNB, SI, FTW]
- The NHL released its schedule for the World Cup of Hockey, and two exhibition games are coming to the Phone Booth. [Rink]
- While a healthy Carey Price has an engraved invite from Team Canada brass, Braden Holtby should probably check his mailbox soon. [Ottawa Sun]
- Somewhat related – Evgeni Malkin had some thoughts on Ovi and their work for the national team. [Sportsnet]
- Suddenly the trade winds seem to be blowing, and Down Goes Brown ranks the 30 NHL Managers General in order of their propensity to start trading, from least-liable to most. Caps GM Brian MacLellan checks in at a tidy 29, owing to the fact that he has a good team… and only about $40,000 in cap space. [ESPN]
- DGB is also cheering hard for a Rangers-Isles playoff series (as am I, but only as a first- or second- round series), but mostly I’m linking for this musing: “The Caps are probably the conference’s best team and it wouldn’t be a shock to see them pull away from the pack in the coming weeks once the schedule-maker remembers to start giving them occasional games.” Well-played, sir. [ESPN]
- Craig Custance submits his first-term grades for the Eastern Conference and the Caps get an A. “The Capitals were predicted as the Stanley Cup winner in this space before the season, and have played like a team worthy of those expectations.” [ESPN $]
- Oh hai there Adam Oates, who has diversified into a skills coach for individual players. It appears that Ovechkin is one of his loyal clients, and it also appears he still loves to fiddle with sticks. [OilersNation]
- Brett Hull, who knows a few things about scoring goals, considers Ovechkin to be a pretty fair goal-scorer in the NHL. [TSN, in a video us Yanks can’t watch. Sigh.]
- That 2009-2010 Hershey squad was something else. Leafs Nation is getting excited by the players on the 2015-16 Marlies, and dreaming of the day they make a difference in the NHL. [TLN]
- Related: Madison Bowey is learning the ropes of pro hockey in Hershey, complete with a healthy scratch now and then to allow him to see the game. [Patriot-News]
- Our SBN brethren checked in with old friend Jeff Schultz, who is patrolling the blueline with the Ontario Reign and teaching the kids how to be pros. He’s a daddy himself now, with 16-week-old son Cole, and in case you forgot that Justin Williams is an exceptional human being, you’ll be reminded of that fact. [Jewels From The Crown]
- Finally, happy 57th birthday to Dave Poulin, and Craig Berube hits the big 5-0.