Your savory breakfast links:

• On Friday at puck drop, the Caps reached an important milestone: They were able to deploy their full complement of defensemen for the very first time this season, with the only decision to be made being whom to scratch.
  
  • By Saturday at puck drop, the decision-making got a bit more complicated, with Mike Green and suddenly John Erskine not able to go, and so Brooks Laich was tasked with blueline duties. [Dump 'n Chase]
  • By the end of the game on Saturday the Caps were down yet another d-man, as Roman Hamrlik went missing about halfway through the second period. [CW (here and here)]
  • Which is why it wasn't entirely surprising to find Bruce Boudreau conferring with Hershey Bears GM Doug Yingst at the Giant Center on Sunday. [SHoE, Caps Outsider, CSNW, WashTimes, Caps B-Ball]
  • One player they got to see was the recently-acquired defenseman Tomas Kundratek, who suited up for the first time as a Hershey Bear and finished plus-1 on the night, on-ice for no goals against. [DSP]
  • But hey, that whole playing defense thing?  Brooks is cool with it. He even practices for it in the summertime. Y'know, just in case. [WashTimes]
• The forward corps is not without its concerns as well.
  • Reinvention? Or evolution? Alex Ovechkin's game needs... something. [CSNW, PHT]
  • And then there's Alexander Semin. Oh, Sasha. [CW, Sick Unbelievable, Caps Outsider]
• The Week That Was, Volume 5... [Peerless]
• ...and The Goals Project, updated.  Kinda wish there were more of them. [Peerless]
• Look up "clutch" in the dictionary and you'll find this video of Evgeny Kuznetsov and his game-winning, championship-clinching goal in yesterday's Karjala Cup final. [RMNB]
• A smallish news item in an article about CBA negotiations may get more traction this week - as the NHLPA begins its own audits of the various teams' books, it claims they've found under-reported hockey-related revenue for at least two teams - the Predators and the Capitals. Damien Cox is standing by. [NY Post, CI, On the Forecheck]
• Finally, happy birthday wishes go out to Brad Church, Jim Bedard, Rod Seiling, Bugsy Watson, and the one and only Joe Beninati.