ARLINGTON Womens Luke Kunin Jersey , Va. (AP) When Barry Trotz resigned, the Washington Capitals didn’t even bother with a coaching search.There was only one candidate and he got the job.Top assistant Todd Reirden will take over the Stanley Cup-champion Capitals, promoted from the bench on Friday in a move that allows Washington to maintain a sense of continuity. Reirden coached the defensemen the past four seasons, was a finalist for another NHL head job two years ago, earned a promotion to associate coach and played a substantial role in the first championship in franchise history.”We feel that the time is right for Todd to lead our hockey club,” general manager Brian MacLellan said. ”Based on his coaching experience, communication abilities, his approach to the game and the respect he commands in our locker room, we feel that Todd has earned this opportunity.”MacLellan hopes promoting Reirden from within will allow the team to ”transition seamlessly into next season and beyond.”Given his four-year tenure on Trotz’s staff and the league-wide view of him as a rising star in coaching, Reirden was the only one interviewed for this job. He was hired less than two weeks after Trotz resigned and eight days after the veteran Cup-winning coach joined the New York Islanders.The 47-year-old former defenseman coached the American Hockey League’s Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins for parts of two seasons before serving as an NHL assistant with Pittsburgh for four years. Reirden was a finalist for the Calgary coaching job two summers ago but after losing out to since-fired Glen Gulutzan was given a raise and the associate coach title by the Capitals.As the assistant in charge of the defense Marcus Foligno Jersey , Reirden had a hand in the development of John Carlson, Matt Niskanen and Dmitry Orlov.”I thought he was crucial for my career and just changed kind of a few things how I looked at the game, changed a few things with the D that I think really benefited everyone on D and made it pretty clear what he expected of us and allowed us to go out there and do the rest,” Carlson said after signing a $64 million, eight-year contract to stick around.MacLellan said last week this was Reirden’s job to lose.”He’s got history there and he’s ready to try it as a head coach, and he’s been successful with our defensemen,” he said. ”I think he can handle the personalities in our room.”Reirden takes over a defending champion led by captain and playoff MVP Alex Ovechkin, who was motivated by Trotz to adapt his game at age 32. He is the first assistant to take over for a Cup-winning coach the next season since Dave Lewis replaced the retired Scotty Bowman with Detroit in 2002-03 and the first to follow a champion coach who left in a contract dispute since Colin Campbell replaced Mike Keenan with the New York Rangers in 1994-95.Reirden describes his coaching personality as a mix of those he has worked with in the past – the honesty of Joel Quenneville and the systems skills of Todd McLellan and Todd Richards. He drew rave reviews from Capitals trade-deadline acquisition Michal Kempny, who credited Reirden for putting together an effective plan that contributed to a key part of the Cup run.”He get my belief in myself back and I really appreciate (him) for it because when I came here I didn’t believe in myself,” Kempny said.Current and past players praise Reirden for his ability to not only strategize but communicate. As the NHL moves away from taskmasters behind the bench http://www.officialwild.com/authentic-adidas-matt-dumba-jersey , Reirden fits the mold of a modern coach.”I think he did a great job taking everybody for being different people and seeing things different ways,” Carlson said. ”I just think he seemed to connect with everyone’s different personalities. I think he makes you look at the game a little bit differently.”Even the forwards who didn’t deal with Reirden on a one-on-one basis got an idea about his benefits to the team.”In the room and in practice he’s always giving little tips to everyone,” winger Devante Smith-Pelly said. ”I think he taught me just a lot of little things positional-wise and things like that maybe other coaches never taught me. … He did amazing job, obviously, with the defense and a big part of the whole run. So I think he’ll do a great job and definitely help us defend the Cup.”— NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) The young Winnipeg Jets have grown up fast this postseason, so quickly that now they are headed to the first Western Conference final in their short history after knocking off the NHL’s best team in the regular season.Tyler Myers and Paul Stastny scored 2:06 apart in the first period, and the Jets stunned the Nashville Predators 5-1 on Thursday night in their first Game 7 – continuing an amazing run for a team swept in its previous two playoff appearances.”The telling stat for me in this series is we played four games in here and never lost in regulation against the best team in the league,” Jets coach Paul Maurice said. ”That’s what you worry about with a young team. It’s a physical series. We’ve got some skaters. … But that’s a difficult thing to do, to get out on the road … to play well in here as consistently as we did Mikael Granlund Jersey , it’s impressive.”Stastny finished with a second goal and an assist, and Mark Scheifele also had two goals. Blake Wheeler and rookie Kyle Connor each had two assists.Connor Hellebuyck made 36 saves for Winnipeg, which won three of four games in Nashville after missing the Presidents’ Trophy by three points to the Predators.The Jets now host Vegas in Game 1 on Saturday night in a conference final nobody could’ve predicted when this season started.”I like it,” Hellebuyck said. ”I’m excited, and looking forward to it.”P.K. Subban scored for Nashville, now the ninth Presidents’ Trophy winner in 10 years not to win the Stanley Cup.The best season in Predators history ended earlier than a year ago, but in the same fashion on their own ice. They lost to Pittsburgh in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final last June.Pekka Rinne, Nashville’s Vezina Trophy finalist along with Hellebuyck, was chased for the third time in this series after giving up two goals on seven shots. He lasted just 10 minutes, 7 seconds for the quickest exit by a starting goalie in a Game 7.”It’s heartbreaking Youth Mikko Koivu Jersey ,” Hellebuyck said on seeing Rinne pulled.Rinne tried to take responsibility for the Predators’ season ending far earlier than they expected.”The biggest moment of the season, it’s a terrible feeling,” Rinne said. ”You let your teammates down, and that’s what happened tonight. That’s tough to swallow.”These teams combined for 231 points in the regular season, making this series the two best teams on points ever to meet in a series before a conference final. This was the third Game 7 all-time for Nashville with a big edge in experience over the Jets playing on this stage.Nashville also brought out the star power once again with Sheryl Crow singing the U.S. anthem and former NFL Titans running back Eddie George waving the towel to rev up the crowd. A couple catfish hit the ice before the puck dropped.The Predators took five of the first six shots, then the Jets stunned the crowd. Myers squeezed a wrister between the post and Rinne’s left skate for a 1-0 lead at 8:40 of the first. Then Stastny put a backhander off Rinne and into the net 2:06 later for a 2-0 lead on just seven shots.Nashville coach Peter Laviolette didn’t hesitate and pulled Rinne for Juuse Saros , trying to snap the Predators out of a slow start while saving his timeout. Laviolette called the goals ”fluky.””There’s not a lot of things that you can do if a game’s not going your way if you can’t use your timeout,” Laviolette said. ”It was way too early to use a timeout at that point. Again, I just tried to send the game in a different direction, put a pause in the game and send it in a different direction.”Subban started the rally with his fourth power-play goal of this series with a big one-timer from Ryan Johansen over Hellebuyck’s stick at 15:54. Subban then pointed to the Nashville bench and once there yelled at his teammates.In the second Ryan Suter Jersey , the Jets simply dominated keeping the puck in the offensive zone and outshot Nashville 6-2. Only Saros making save after save kept it 2-1 until Scheifele’s snap shot for his 10th goal this postseason from the left circle with 2:10 left in the period. That was the first goal Saros had allowed in four appearances this postseason.Stastny sealed the victory with his sixth goal this postseason on the Jets’ lone power play at 11:59. Scheifele added an empty-net goal with 2:33 left.Wheeler said the Jets will take a night to celebrate a thrilling win over Nashville that was every bit the series they expected.”It’s too bad one of us had to be knocked off here,” Wheeler said. ”But night’s like tonight, you try to really soak it in and enjoy it. And then, wake up and get ready for a big game on Saturday.”NOTES: Scheifele scored seven goals in Nashville, setting a record for most road goals in one postseason series. Scheifele topped 10 others tied with six on the road in a series, including Sidney Crosby. … Jets coach Paul Maurice now is 3-0 all-time in Game 7s all on the road. … Laviolette is 5-3 in Game 7s, and Nashville is 1-2 in Game 7s all-time.UP NEXT:Game 1 of Western finals against Jets in Winnipeg.—