ARLINGTON Christopher Tanev Jersey , Va. (AP) from the Capitals‘ playoff run came the morning of Game 7 in the Eastern Conference final.Usually Alex Ovechkin hustles around the rink in a hot lap prior to the morning skate. Only this time it was 55-year-old coach Barry Trotz, who answered the call from his players to do the lap.”I was worried about the turns,” Trotz said. ”The rudders haven’t been sharpened all year. … I almost bit it at the end there trying to imitate Ovi.”The Capitals beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-0 that night to punch their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final, but they might’ve won Game 7 at that moment. Rarely in previous postseasons had Trotz been that relaxed, the result of an unusual situation.Trotz went into the season without – and still doesn’t have – a contract for next season, a circumstance that almost never happens to an experienced coach of a team with legitimate postseason hopes. But in a strange way, being a lame-duck coach might’ve helped Trotz not feel the pressure of past early exits and played a positive role in getting this far.”I think it could be the same effect on a player, too, that’s becoming a free agent,” general manager Brian MacLellan said Friday. ”He’s basically becoming a free agent as a coach Authentic Daniel Sedin Jersey , and what effect does that have? Do you have your best year when you’re a free agent?”Trotz has. Even with the fifth-most victories of any coach in NHL history, until this spring he hadn’t made it past the second round in 18 previous seasons with the Nashville Predators and Capitals. He called it ”luck of the draw,” running into championship-bound teams from Detroit, Chicago and Pittsburgh.This improbable Capitals run that continues with Game 1 of the Cup Final on Monday in Las Vegas is not luck. It’s parts Ovechkin and goaltender Braden Holtby, and also the right moves by Trotz. He called on Philipp Grubauer to start the first round in goal before switching to Holtby in Game 2 against Columbus and watching him get on a roll. He put Jakub Vrana on the top line not long before the rookie scored the winner in Game 5 against the Penguins and pushed all the right buttons on rest and preparation.Teams tend to read cues from a head coach, and those have been positive.”I think his demeanor has changed a little bit,” MacLellan said. ”He seems a little lighter, a little looser, a little less pressure, maybe a little more freedom in terms of how he goes about things.”Despite back-to-back Presidents’ Trophies Womens Derek Dorsett Jersey , MacLellan and Capitals management didn’t offer Trotz an extension.Before the playoffs, Trotz said he hadn’t lost any sleep over his status and referred questions to MacLellan and owner Ted Leonsis. In March, Leonsis said he doesn’t talk about contracts, and MacLellan has repeatedly stated that any talks would wait until after the playoffs. There are currently no vacancies in the NHL.Toronto’s Mike Babcock is the highest-paid coach at $6.25 million, Chicago’s Joel Quenneville is next at $6 million and Montreal’s Claude Julien comes in at $5 million. Those three have combined to win the Cup five times.Trotz’s price tag has gone up however the Final goes against the Golden Knights.”He’s probably going to benefit from this, too,” MacLellan said. ”I think he’s done a good job managing it. To come in this year with so many questions – not from my point of view the lineup questions were that a big deal – but just the emotional state of our team coming in to start the year and how to handle that, I think he’s done an outstanding job.”Trotz survived a 10-9-1 start that culminated with 6-3 and 6-2 losses at Nashville and Colorado, and the Capitals winning 12 of their next 14 games might have saved his job. Players’ response to Trotz reading them the riot act showed he certainly hadn’t lost the room.But a journey of self-discovery last summer went beyond not having a contract.”It gave me just some clarity on what defines me, what defines us http://www.officialcanucks.com/authentic-adidas-henrik-sedin-jersey , what defines you,” Trotz said. ”If you don’t win any awards or anything, I’m not going to look at you any different. If you’re a good person and you treat people right and you live your life right, then I’m going to think really highly of you. If you don’t, I’m not going to think so much of you. And I started getting that clarity that everybody looks for the wrong in people rather than the right and it gave me a lot of clarity. And some things happened in my life that allowed me to see that and it’s been good.”Happy, relaxed Trotz has made more appearances in these playoffs than buttoned-down, terse Trotz. He hasn’t soured amid the road bumps this postseason.The Capitals have followed Trotz’s even-keeled approach and even been upbeat following losses. Like his players, he’s enjoying the ride.”Playoffs are fun,” Trotz said. ”They are a grind. But they’re fun. And they should be treated as fun. They’re sort of all the hard that you have to put in just to get there and it takes even more hard work to go farther, but it is fun. I’m finding I’m having a blast during the games.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals— SAN JOSE Jacob Markstrom Jersey , Calif. (AP) — Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers responded the right way to a wakeup call after coach Todd McLellan was fired just hours before they took the ice.McDavid scored his 100th career goal and set up Leon Draisaitl’s game-winner 51 seconds into overtime to give the Oilers a 4-3 victory against the San Jose Sharks in Ken Hitchcock’s first game as coach Tuesday night.“That’s what it has to be,” McDavid said. “Anytime you bring in a new coach, that’s kind of the last option I would say before shipping everyone out. This is a chance for us to come together and turn this around.”The Oilers started that process by overcoming three deficits to earn just their second win in eight games.McDavid set up Drake Caggiula’s tying goal early in the third period and then the winner in overtime when his pass ricocheted off defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic before hitting Draisaitl’s skate and trickling past goalie Martin Jones.“I was more worried that it was past my bedtime and I wasn’t going to be able to stay up,” Hitchcock said. “I don’t think I’ve seen a third period all year out West. But for me, we just got better and better as the game went on. We got better in the second; we were really good in the third. We really got on the grind.”Ryan Nugent-Hopkins added a short-handed goal and Mikko Koskinen made 22 saves.Joe Thornton assisted on Marcus Sorensen’s goal in the first period to tie Mario Lemieux for 11th place all-time with his 1,033rd helper. Joonas Donskoi and Logan Couture also scored for San Jose.“Tonight’s a disappointing one because I thought if we had gotten a little bit better effort from everybody, from 20 guys, we should have gotten two points,” coach Peter DeBoer said. “We didn’t have enough participants tonight. We didn’t play well enough for long enough stretches. It wasn’t one or two guys, it was almost everybody.”The Sharks took a 3-2 lead in the final minute of the second period when Couture deked Adam Larsson on the rush and beat Koskinen for his first goal in 11 games.But the Oilers responded early in the third when McDavid set up Caggiula on an odd-man rush for the equalizer less than four minutes into the period.“There are too many odd-man rushes Markus Granlund Jersey ,” Couture said. “It wasn’t horrible tonight. It was better than it has been, but still too many. Especially when you are out there against Connor. You can’t give them that many chances. He’s their best player.”The Hitchcock era got off to a rough start for the Oilers, who allowed a goal in the opening minute when Donskoi was left alone in front of the net after a faceoff win by San Jose. Brent Burns’ shot from the point was stopped by Koskinen, but Donskoi was able to backhand the rebound in.McDavid got the equalizer midway through the period when he beat Burns down the slot to take a feed from Draisaitl and knocked it in for his milestone goal. McDavid reached the mark in his 230th game. Only Wayne Gretzky (145 games), Glenn Anderson (183) and Jari Kurri (214) got there faster for the Oilers.Thornton then reached his milestone later in the period when he fed Sorensen from behind the goal line for a one-timer that beat Koskinen.Edmonton tied the game early in the second when Nugent-Hopkins converted a 2-on-1 off a feed from Kyle Brodziak after the Sharks turned the puck over in the offensive zone on a power play.“Obviously it says something about your team, that you need to start playing better,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “We need to make a push here now. Our last eight or so games haven’t been good enough. I felt tonight we responded well, so we just have to keep that going.”NOTES: McDavid has 31 points, becoming the first Oilers player to reach 30 in 21 or fewer games since Mark Messier did it in 19 games in 1989-90. … Thornton needs seven assists to tie Marcel Dionne for 10th place. … F Tomas Hertl returned to the Sharks lineup after missing two games with a lower-body injury.UP NEXTOilers: Visit the Anaheim Ducks on Friday.Sharks: Host the Vancouver Canucks on Friday.