Your savory breakfast links (which will pair nicely with some early morning patriotic puck-watching):

• The latest labor-related news, non-news and assorted whatnot:
  • Where we think we are and how much time we think we have left to get to where we need to be. [CBC, TSN (video), Sportsnet, Sporting News, CSNW, Peerless]
  • Pick one, Players: low cap or high escrow? [Globe and Mail]
  • Removing the "dead" from "deadlines." [National Post]
  • The atmosphere surrounding these negotiations is flat-out toxic (and not in the awesome Britney Spears way... wait, what?) [SI, National Post, NYPost, THN]
    
  • See me. Feel me. Touch me. Heal me. [Sportsnet]
  • If and when they fans come back, they'll need to hold their collective nose. [Toronto Star, Globe and Mail]
  • Related: what's that giant flushing sound? [CNBC, ESPN]
  • Two buyouts - who've you got? [GM on a Couch, with more on this amnesty at Puck Daddy]
• If there is a 2012-13 (err, 2013) season, a look at what goalies might be in for. [National Post (related: Braden Holtby has been super in the AHL (PDF) and Michal Neuvirth appears to be a bit banged up back home)]
• Alex Ovechkin scored and downed Alexander Semin's Torpedo last night. [RMNB, Alex Ovetjkin]
• Previews of this morning's gold medal game at the WJCs (which gets underway in a few hours), featuring Caps 2012 draft picks Riley Barber (USA), Filip Forsberg (SWE) and Christian Djoos (SWE). [SI, Backhand Shelf, Capitals Outsider]
• Notes, etc. from up the road in Hershey. [Patriot-News (and again and again and again)]
• Speculating as to what broke Dmitry Orlov. [RMNB]
• Like the Ovi we all know, Oviraptors apparently spent considerable "time and energy into putting on a display." [CBC]
• Finally, happy 25th birthday to Mathieu Perreault, happy 38th to Mike Grier and happy 45th to Joé Juneau.