Daily Washington Capitals news and notes: It’s go time!
Your savory breakfast links:
- The roster is set, and a handful of youngsters makes the cut as Nicklas Backstrom heads to LTIR. [Caps, video, Rink]
- Young guns, part deux? [Rink]
- Washington Post beat writer Samantha Pell joins the JRR crew to talk all things Caps for the upcoming season. [Rink]
- Previews of tonight’s season opener against the Rangers from Vogs, Peerless, NoVa Caps, Blue Line Station, and NY Post, and be sure to check in with our SB Nation pals over at Blueshirt Banter for the other side of tonight’s matchup.
- Alex Ovechkin remains questionable – but hopeful – for the opener. Positive thoughts, everyone. [AP, NHL]
- Meanwhile Ryan Reaves doesn’t seem to be questionable for tonight, as the knuckle-dragger is ready to do his job tonight (aka make his team markedly worse). [Newsday]
- Despite the infusion of some young prospects, the Caps are once again putting their trust in an aging core… can they hold up over a full, rugged season? [WaPo]
- Hear from the coach and couple of those aforementioned youngsters talk about opening night. [Caps video (Laviolette, Malenstyn, Fehervary)]
- Season preview: Contenders, pretenders and wild cards [Yahoo! Sports]
- Season preview: An ESPN analyst roundtable [ESPN]
- Season preview: Stanley Cup, division and award winners [ESPN]
- Season preview: The Metro Division. [The Athletic ($)]
- Player preview: Evgeny Kuznetsov. [S&S]
- Getting out the ol’ crystal ball for some predictions. [Yahoo! Sports, The Score (and again)]
- The Caps will not have an easy road ahead of them in what is expected to be a very tough Metro Division. [THW]
- Three takeaways from an up-and-down preseason. [S&S]
- Chatting with the team’s new Director of Game Presentation, Alexa Ikeler, on what is in store for those attending tonight’s opener at Capital One Arena. [The Athletic ($)]
- Happy 56th birthday to Paul Cavallini!
- And finally, the best update from yesterday was this delightful new commercial featuring the Caps two superstars: [WaPo, NHL]
We feel like this commercial deserves an award. We don’t know which one, but probably all of them.@massmutual | #LiveMutual pic.twitter.com/QJ52arXw6W
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) October 12, 2021