Monday Caps Clips: Avalanche @ Capitals Game Day

Your savory breakfast links:

• Previews of tonight’s clash with Colorado from Vogs (plus game notes), NHL.com and Peerless, and check out our SB Nation pals over at Mile High Hockey for the other side of tonight’s match-up.
  
  • Verizon Center is the first stop on Colorado’s five-game Eastern roadie. [Mile High Sticking]
  • Oh hai there, suddenly-resurgent Semyon Varlamov and Avs team. [PHT]
• Nate Schmidt is listed as “day-to-day” with an upper-body injury after sustaining a hit behind the net in Hershey’s loss to Norfolk on Sunday. Dammit. [Patriot-News, RMNB]
• News and notes from yesterday’s optional skate:
  • In general. [Monumental video (Trotz, Backstrom, Fehr, Holtby, Rinkside Update/Kuznetsov)]
  • Nicklas Backstrom did not make the All-Star invites and everyone’s mad about it. Except perhaps Nick himself. [CSNW, WaPo, NBC4, PHT]
• The Week That Was, Volume Fourteen… [Peerless, RMNB, ILWT (with the Metro lowdown)]
  • … and the Half Season That Was (spoiler: a vast improvement over last year but please to be stopping with all the penalties.) [WaPo, CSNW, Frankovic]
• Leftovers from a five-of-six-available-points week:
  
  • “… that’s six-straight Monday-through-Sunday weeks with two wins and a loss for the #Caps (4 of the L’s being OT/SO). That’ll do.” [@JapersRink]
  • An improved penalty kill, huzzah! [WaPo]
  • An improved power play, huzzah! [RMNB]
• Prospect updates:
  • Madison Bowey returned to WHL action on Saturday versus Medicine Hat. He had a goal, two assists, and an even rating as the Rockets fell to the Tigers 5-3. [Kelowna Now]
  • Riley Barber had one assist and went minus-2 in two games as Miami of Ohio was swept by St. Cloud State.
  • Three games into his return to Linkoping, Jakub Vrana is still looking for his first post-WJC point. [SHL.se]
  • Shane Gersich is tied for 15th in scoring in the USHL with 17-13-30, +10 in 26 games played. [USHL]
  • “Lastly, a shoutout to Zach Sanford, who was BC’s best skater all night, and showed several flashes of high-level stickhandling that would have made Johnny Gaudreau proud. Mark my words, the freshman could develop into being BC’s best player as an upperclassman.” [BC Interruption]
• Finally, happy 37th birthday to Josef Boumedienne, happy 54th to Daryl Evans, and happy 48th to Ulf Dahlen.