This wasn’t the sort of second chance a guy gets because he royally screwed things up the first time.
It wasn’t some do-over to produce the right results because the initial ones were so incredibly wrong.
George McPhee spent 17 years as general manager of the Washington Capitals, and in that time his teams delivered a Stanley Cup Final appearance and seven division titles and even a franchise-record 121 points in 2009-10.
His resume was more good than bad, results on ice consistently positive — and yet an inability to push deep into the playoffs one reason that eventually cost him the job.