TORONTO — As we began our conversation, sitting across from each other in a downtown breakfast diner Thursday, I asked Brian MacLellan about the parallels between his Capitals and their longtime rivals, the Penguins.
The Caps have Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and John Carlson signed long-term. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang aren’t going anywhere in Pittsburgh.
Rebuild? Um, not really an option for either.
“No,” he said, shaking his head in agreement. “Pittsburgh, us, and Boston.”
Although, MacLellan added, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci came back on one-year deals this season for the Bruins, so who knows what they do after that.
The Caps and Penguins? Even all these years after the Crosby and Ovechkin eras began, the mission remains pretty clear-cut: be competitive. A teardown isn’t an option for either.
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