Your savory breakfast links:
- A few leftovers from George McPhee‘s final press conference out at Kettler earlier this week. [WaPo (and again), CSNW (Part 1, Part 2), NBC4]
- Hop in the wayback machine and go back 17 years to when McPhee was a fresh-faced new hire in DC – before Alex Ovechkin, before Jaromir Jagr, before punching Lorne Molleken. [WaPo]
- Katie Carrera checks in with talk about Ovechkin, McPhee and Adam Oates. [WaPo]
- Speaking of Ovechkin, everyone is speaking of Ovechkin:
- The only thing that matters when it comes to Ovechkin is that the next guys in figure out how to win with him, because he’s running the show. [WaPo]
- Also apparently he’s way too close to the owner and needs new toys in the sandbox or… something. [WaPo]
- Alex Ovechkin: Coach-Killer!! Oy. [THW]
- Except he’s really, really not. In fact, he’s one of the only guys who did his job, and laying all of the blame at his feet is just silliness. [National Post, Yahoo!]
- But at the end of the day, take note: the fans will still wear his name proudly on their jerseys. Even if those jerseys belong to a different sport. Details. [WaPo]
- A look back at McPhee’s best and worst trades. Does Martin Erat‘s name surface? Click to find out! [CSNW]
- Grading Nicklas Backstrom‘s season… [Rink, RMNB]
- …and John Carlson‘s… [CSNW]
- …and Jack Hillen‘s “season”. Poor guy. [Peerless]
- Mike Vogel has his end-of-the-year chat with Evgeny Kuznetsov. [Rinkside Update]
- Happy 48th birthday to Jeff Brown and happy 57th to Dave Parro.
- Finally, congrats to the Washington Wizards and our pals over at Bullets Forever, as the Wiz are moving on to the second round of the NBA playoffs. One more series win and they become the second-most successful DC franchise (hi there, United) in 15 years! …sigh.