A New Day in DC...Sort Of...

When George McPhee and Adam Oates were given their walking papers with the Washington Capitals a few weeks ago, it was expected that whoever the new head coach and General Manager would be was facing a pretty daunting task.

Well, that task will fall to Barry Trotz and Brian MacClellan, who will be the head coach and General Manager, respectively, as of right now.  Trotz was the head coach of Washington's minor league affiliate prior to becoming the head coach of the Nashville Predators beginning with the 1998-99 season.  His time ended after this season, but he has a reputation for building defensively solid teams that have almost always been hurting for offense.  However, his teams have always been competitive, something that that Capitals sorely need.  What will be interesting is how Trotz handles Alexander Ovechkin, a mercurial superstar that can score goals (a lot), but has also been under intense scrutiny lately for being lackadaisical on defense.  More importantly, it remains to be seen if he can get Mike Green, among other blue liners on the team, to finally commit to playing both ways.

MacClellan was an assistant General Manager with the Capitals the previous seven seasons, and this is a move while it does keep a sense of familiarity with the Caps, it also invites heavy criticism.  The man he replaced, George McPhee, had made questionable moves in recent years (Filip Forsberg for Martin Erat), and the criticism stems from the fact that MacClellan was too familiar with the Caps to be seen as a viable replacement.  Whether MacClellan learns from the mistakes of his predecessor remains to be seen.