Daily Washington Capitals news and notes: Digging into the Caps’ finishing finesse (or lack thereof), floating trade proposals ahead of the trade deadline, preparations begin for the upcoming Stadium Series game in Raleigh and more.
Your savory breakfast links:
- Are the Capitals finished-, er, finishing? [Rink]
- Brian MacLellan took care of some key business this weekend, but many more pending UFAs remain – so who should be next? [Rink]
- Hanging on to Dylan Strome and Sonny Milano ensures an infusion of youth into an increasingly old roster. [NBCSW]
- Grading the Caps’ performance leading up to the All-Star break/Bye Week. [S&S]
- Reunited with the Capitals, Anthony Mantha and Nicolas Aube-Kubel have a close friendship that goes all the way back to juniors. [WHN]
- Buy or sell? Breaking down this key question for teams in, or hoping to be in, a playoff spot as we head toward the trade deadline. [Yahoo, THW]
- If the Caps were to be buyers, might Jakob Chychrun be on the wish list? [THW]
- Or how about Ottawa’s Alex DeBrincat? [THW]
- For the next few weeks, all eyes will be on MacLellan – so it’s a good time to look back at some of the best, and worst, moves of his tenure as Caps’ GM. [NoVa Caps]
- One of his more recent moves was the splashy signing of recent Cup champ Darcy Kuemper over the summer… has it been worth it so far? [S&S]
- Just under two weeks remain before the Caps and ‘Canes take things outside, and ice prep is underway at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh. [NHL, ABC11, WRAL, News & Observer]
- Happy 55th birthday to Shawn Anderson, happy 29th to Riley Barber, happy 53rd to Denis Chase, happy 32nd to Richard Panik, happy 51st to John Slaney, happy 29th to Nathan Walker…
- …and finally, happy 55th birthday to Peter Bondra, who took stock on this birthday to reflect on a fantastic career in hockey. [Sportnet.sk]