Your savory breakfast links:
- Recaps of a penalty-ridden loss from us, Vogs (plus game notes), Monumental video (Trotz, Holtby, Alzner, Carlson, Johnston, Pens room, 40th Anniversary Tribute – Dino Ciccarelli), NHL.com, AP, WaPo (gamer, blog), CSNW (gamer, blog), Frankovic, DSP (plus three stars), Stars and Sticks, RMNB and from the Pens‘ end of the ice, Pensburgh, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Pensblog and TribLive.
- Live by the brawl, die by the brawl. [CSNW, Eye on Hockey, RMNB (and again), Caps Outsider, CBS DC, Puck Daddy, SB Nation]
- The Captain scored a beauty for his 39th goal… [RMNB]
- …and left no doubt of his displeasure as his team left the ice. [The Pensblog]
- From Elias: Evgeni Malkin assisted on three of the Penguins‘ goals in their 4-3 win over the Capitals. Malkin has recorded 33 assists in 29 regular-season games against Washington, which makes him one of only three NHL players, past or present, who have played at least 25 games versus the Capitals and averaged more than one assist per game against them. The others are Wayne Gretzky (of course, with 75 assists in 57 games) and Marc Savard (39 assists in 38 games). Sidney Crosby was part of that exclusive group when Wednesday’s game began, and though he scored a goal, he did not register an assist, which leaves him with a career average of exactly one assist per game against the Capitals (33 in 33 games).
- Oh hai there NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman. Nice of you to stop by. [Monumental (video), WaPo]
- News and notes from yesterday’s pregame skate:
- In general. [Dump ‘n Chase, Monumental video (Two-Man Advantage, Caps Report, Trotz, Brouwer, Rinkside Update/Green)]
- Cam Schilling gets a second start; Jay Beagle gets a press box seat… [WaPo]
- … and the team gets some special teams work. [WaPo]
- Trotz has his team in playoff position. [USA Today]
- AO8 and Nicklas Backstrom , thriving together. [NHL.com]
- Lest we forget – All the cheap shots from the previous Caps-Pens lovefest. [RMNB]
- Brooks Laich certainly remembered. [WaPo]
- March 2 draws near. Time for some trading posts:
- Firstly, keep in mind: be careful of what you wish for. [Peerless]
- Eastern Conference deadline preview. [TSN]
- Metro Division deadline preview. [THN]
- Sizing up the Caps’ options. Trading Mike Green isn’t one of them, probably. [ESPN]
- Calgary’s Curtis Glencross is a forward whose name was mentioned frequently as a Caps trade target on Wednesday, but should he be? [THW]
- The week in fancystats. [Stars and Sticks]
- Is it time to tinker with the Caps’ third line? [BrooksLaichyear]
- Barry Trotz, kickin’ it old-school. [Stars and Sticks]
- “Just how awful of a coach was Adam Oates?” Meditations on a culture change. [Shadows on the Ice]
- If you’ve ever wondered how your game tickets came to be priced as they are, here is some insight from the NHL’s VP of Ticket Pricing. [FanPost]
- Finally, happy 62nd birthday to Larry Bolonchuk.