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George McPhee will only get a ring if the Vegas Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup.
Maybe he should get one if the Washington Capitals win.
McPhee is responsible for acquiring 13 players on the current roster during his 17 years as general manager and also hired longtime friend Brian MacLellan Youth Tyler Pitlick Jersey , who became his successor and built the rest of the team. Kicked around the past five years for trading Filip Forsberg to Nashville for Martin Erat and not being able to bring the Cup to Washington, McPhee has his fingerprints all over this final after building the foundation of each team.
”It’s funny how life goes,” McPhee said Sunday in Las Vegas. ”Two years ago I was walking around Ann Arbor kicking stones and couldn’t get a job.”
McPhee went two years between his job as Capitals GM and his new one when new owner Bill Foley hired him for the dream job of his life as GM running the as-yet-named Vegas expansion team. From MacLellan to captain Alex Ovechkin, star center Nicklas Backstrom, goaltender Braden Holtby and management staffs on either side, this final in many ways is a validation of McPhee’s philosophy, knowledge and career.
”It’s great to see him have success somewhere else,” said Capitals defenseman John Carlson, one of 12 McPhee draft picks facing him in the final. ”I knew he would, based on the pieces that he put in place here.”
McPhee was GM when the Capitals last made the Cup Final in 1998 but had just taken over the previous summer. Until the past year, his greatest accomplishment was rebuilding Washington into a perennial playoff team and title contender that went to the playoffs from 2008-2013.
After missing the playoffs in 2014, the Capitals did not renew McPhee’s contract.
”When you’re working with (players), they’re sometimes like your own kids,” McPhee said. ”You’re on call for them all the time, you’re trying to help them, you try to steer them in the right direction. Then you get fired and you’re suddenly persona non grata because nobody wants to be seen to be too close to you in the organization. I understand that’s how things change quickly and that’s the business.”
Things changed quickly because MacLellan went from McPhee’s college teammate and roommate and then right-hand man as assistant GM to the person who owner Ted Leonsis said gave ”the most negative of the interviews” among candidates. MacLellan said he felt like he had nothing to lose during the interview process, which led to him landing the job at the same time Barry Trotz was named coach.
MacLellan conceded Friday his relationship with McPhee was ”not as close” as in previous decades.
”I think it just took a little time for things to evolve Noah Hanifin Jersey ,” MacLellan said. ”I think he needed a break from the game, needed a break from how it went down for him here and it just took time.”
MacLellan choked up a couple of times talking about glory days with McPhee, when they won the Central Collegiate Hockey Association Championship together at Bowling Green. McPhee and MacLellan have had dinner and texted in recent days about how strange it is to face each other after all that has transpired.
”It’s kind of a weird experience,” MacLellan said. ”It’s a little awkward, but it’s going to be a fun experience, I hope.”
McPhee still has plenty of supporters in the Capitals’ locker room, especially among players he stuck his neck out for. He signed Jay Beagle as a college free agent in 2007, listened to now-Vegas goaltending coach Dave Prior and selected Holtby as the 10th goaltender in the 2008 draft and picked Tom Wilson in the first round in 2012.
”I have a very fond respect for George,” Wilson said. ”You always have kind of a soft spot for the guy that drafted you, that brought you into the league, that gave you a chance. … He kind of always had his players’ back.”
Not only is Beagle thankful to McPhee for taking a chance on him, but he also believes in the moves made to try to bring a championship to Washington well before now, even if they didn’t work out perfectly.
”The trades and the deals that he made were to win the Stanley Cup that year,” Beagle said. ”You can always look back and be like, `Oh it wasn’t the right one’ or `It was the right one.’ But at the time it was the moves that he felt needed to be done to win a Stanley Cup that year because we had a team to do it for a lot of years.”
Now that the Capitals – and Golden Knights – have that team, McPhee will be there each night to see one of his teams lift the Cup.
”I’m certainly proud of the Washington team and the players,” McPhee said. ”Really happy for them – and really proud of this team we have in Vegas.”
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More Stanley Cup coverage: The Detroit Tigers lost much more than a game on Tuesday night.
Miguel Cabrera ruptured his left biceps tendon in the third inning of a 6-4 loss to the Minnesota Twins and will have season-ending surgery later this week.
”This is obviously a very sad day for Miggy and for the entire ballclub Womens Devante Smith-Pelly Jersey ,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. ”It is obviously a huge blow to the team, both on and off the field, but we will have to find a way to overcome it.”
Gardenhire said Cabrera’s status for the 2019 season won’t be known until after the operation. He still has $154 million left on a contract that runs through 2023.
Cabrera swung awkwardly at Jake Odorizzi’s slider and immediately walked to the dugout with his arm limply at his side. When he was joined by team trainers, the slugger gestured to his biceps and continued walking into the Detroit clubhouse.
”At that end of that inning, I ran up to check on him in the clubhouse and he said he felt a pop on that swing,” teammate Nicholas Castellanos said. ”I knew that wasn’t good, but we didn’t find out how bad it was until after the game.”
Many of the Tigers had already left the clubhouse before it was opened to the media, more than 20 minutes after the final pitch.
”We’re all kind of stunned,” said JaCoby Jones. ”You don’t think anything like that is going to happen to Miguel Cabrera, especially on a swing.”
Cabrera has played through numerous lower-body injuries in the past few years, even while winning a Triple Crown, two MVP awards and four batting titles, but it started to catch up with him in 2017. He played 130 games, but hit a career-worst .249 with 16 homers.
This year, he missed three games with spasms in the same biceps tendon that ruptured on Tuesday, then was out for 26 games with a hamstring strain and back tightness. He returned on June 1, hitting .244 with no home runs and one RBI in 12 games before the latest injury.
Gardenhire didn’t think the earlier injuries played a role in what happened on Tuesday.
”He took BP before the game and he said he felt great Sean Monahan Jersey ,” Gardenhire said.
John Hicks, normally Detroit’s backup catcher, played first base during Cabrera’s previous absence and will return there for the time being. Gardenhire said the team will discuss long-term plans in the upcoming days.
”We’re all going to have to step up, starting tomorrow, to try to fill Miggy’s shoes,” Castellanos said. ”That means everyone, beginning with me.”
The mood in the clubhouse wasn’t helped by a late-inning loss. Detroit led 2-1 after six innings before Ehire Adrianza’s first career grand slam rallied the Twins.
Tigers starter Blaine Hardy allowed a leadoff single to Eduardo Escobar to start the seventh and was replaced by Louis Coleman.
”I understand that move completely,” Hardy said. ”I have just as much faith in Lou as I do myself, and that hasn’t changed.”
Coleman (3-1) only threw nine strikes in a 23-pitch outing, walking two batters to load the bases with two out. Gardenhire brought in Warwick Saupold, who went to a 3-1 count on Adrianza before throwing a fastball that ended up in the right-field stands.
”I’m not a home run hitter, so this is very exciting,” Adrianza said. ”It was a hitter’s count, so I was looking for a fastball and I hit it hard. I was emotional.”
The Tigers made it 5-4 with two runs in the seventh. With runners on second and third with two outs, Jones beat out an infield single and Escobar’s throw sailed past first baseman Logan Morrison for Minnesota’s second throwing error of the inning.
Miguel Sano gave the Twins a 6-4 lead with an RBI single in the eighth.
”We walked some people and we just let the game get away from us,” Gardenhire said. ”That was disappointing.”
Ryan Pressly (1-1) got the win with a scoreless inning of relief. Fernando Rodney pitched the ninth for his 14th save.
”I think we’ve played better in games that we’ve lost, but winning is the important part Andre Burakovsky Jersey ,” Twins manager Paul Molitor said. ”What Ehire did was obviously huge. We were hoping he’d get something to the outfield, and he puts it in the seats.”
Hardy pitched six-plus innings, allowing one run on three hits and a walk. Hardy, who replaced Jordan Zimmermann in the rotation, is expected to make at least one more start before Zimmermann and Francisco Liriano return from the disabled list.
Odorizzi permitted two runs on four hits and four walks in five innings. He struck out four while throwing 102 pitches.
The Twins took a 1-0 lead by manufacturing a run in the third. With one out, Adrianza reached on an infield single, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on Ryan LaMarre’s sacrifice fly.
Jose Iglesias tied the game with a one-out RBI triple in the fourth, and scored on Leonys Martin’s sacrifice fly.
STAYING IN SHAPE
While on third base after his fourth-inning triple, Iglesias had to dive to the ground to avoid being hit by teammate Dixon Machado’s line drive. He broke his fall with his hands and snapped off three quick push-ups before jumping back to his feet.
HEALTHY RESUME
Cabrera made his major league debut for the Florida Marlins on June 20, 2003, and played in 87 of their final 88 games. He averaged 153 games in the next 14 seasons, but will finish 2018 with 38.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Twins: Minnesota signed RHP Matt Belisle to a major league contract and he joined the team in Detro Cheap Los Angeles Rams Jerseys
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