Your savory breakfast links:

• Brooks Laich talks about talking about hockey. Meta. [WaPo]
• Alex Semin may be the difference between playoff success and failure. No pressure. [WaTi]
• Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Viktor Kozlov make up the fourth-best line in hockey, which is three spots lower than TSN had the trio of AO, Backstrom and Semin a month ago. [The Hockey News]
• To get a quote or two about how the recession is impacting the sports world, it was a pretty obvious move for Reuters to hit up the owner of the Capitals, but only because there aren't professional teams named the Equities or the Liquidities. [Reuters via Ted's Take]
• One year ago today, Olie Kolzig played his last game in a Washington Capitals uniform (and it didn't go so well).
• On this date back in 2002, the Caps traded Adam Oates to Philly for Maxime Ouellet and the Flyers' first three picks in that summer's draft (and check out the comments here before you ask what ever became of those picks).
• Dean Arsene and Andrew Gordon are cookin' in Hershey. Literally. [FOX43 via JWH]