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WASHINGTON (AP) Troy Mann’s phone the morning after the Capitals eliminated the Penguins with a patchwork lineup featuring five rookies. It came from Barry Trotz.”Thanks Manner for having all those rookie Caps ready Womens Victor Rask Jersey ,” Trotz wrote. ”They all played well – you own a piece of this win last night.”Mann beamed with pride when more than a half-dozen players he coached with the American Hockey League’s Hershey Bears contributed to the victory that got the Capitals into the Eastern Conference final. Many of those players are still playing key roles for Washington in the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights – more than a month after Mann was fired from his job as Hershey’s head coach.This is a bittersweet time for Mann, who had a hand in the development of Jakub Vrana, Chandler Stephenson and Christian Djoos as coach and was an assistant when Braden Holtby, John Carlson, Dmitry Orlov, Andre Burakovsky, Jay Beagle and Tom Wilson went through Hershey on their way to the NHL. Considering the success of those players and Hershey products Nate Schmidt and Cody Eakin contributing for Vegas, the Cup Final is a validation of Mann’s methods of getting prospects ready for the next level.”I called Troy Mann the other day and thanked him for producing a lot of good players,” Trotz said. ”All the players he had the last couple of years are all playing in the Stanley Cup Finals. Guys who haven’t played a (playoff) game before. They’ve brought some of that winning tradition that they had in Hershey. It’s important for those guys to be a part of it.”Mann has remained connected to the Capitals’ playoff run by talking to Trotz and Hershey video coach Mike King, who’s in Washington. Amid interviews with other organizations for another AHL job or work as an NHL assistant, he has watched about 80 percent of the Capitals’ games this postseason and can see the elements in players’ games he and assistant Ryan Murphy harped on improving during their four-year tenure.After giving Vrana some tough love by scratching him in the playoffs a year ago, Mann notices the 22-year-old winger getting between the faceoff dots to create offense like he asked. He watches Stephenson playing with the consistency that was sometimes lacking in Hershey, which was all part of the plan.”We talked a lot during our time here about what they needed to do at the NHL level to be successful,” Mann said by phone this week. ”The thing we’ve seen the most with our guys is just the improvement level from year to year and month to month.”As much as Mann notices the improvement from afar, the players feel it, too, and credit him for giving them the playing time to grow their games in Hershey, a market that expects championships as much as development.”He just gave us a chance Alex DeBrincat Jersey ,” said Stephenson, who has seven points in his first Stanley Cup playoffs. ”The type of franchise that Hershey’s been and having so many Calder Cups and things like that, he put a lot of faith in the younger guys and just trusted us. He wanted us to get to the next level more so than you wanted yourself. I really respected him as a coach and liked him as a coach and to have that faith and trust (from) him, it’s helped me a lot.”His support several years ago helped Eakin become a full-time NHL player who said Mann ”knows how to get the most out of his players.” Schmidt, who had Mann as an assistant and a head coach, appreciated pre-practice skills sessions to work on his hands and stick work and the honesty with which he deals with players.”I thought he was great,” Schmidt said Saturday. ”You always knew where you stood with him. That’s something that I really respect.”But after three playoff appearances including a trip to the Calder Cup Final in 2016, missing the postseason this year led to the Capitals not renewing Mann’s contract.”Troy is a dedicated and hard-working coach, and we appreciate all he has done for the Hershey Bears,” Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan said in a statement. ”At this point, we feel a fresh approach and a change in leadership is needed in order for us to continue to develop our young players towards the next level and for success at the AHL level.”That stung for Mann, who worked eight of the past nine years in the Capitals’ system, made Hershey his home in that time and believed he did his job.”I think it’s very difficult for anybody to tell me that I haven’t done my job here,” Mann said. ”I’m very grateful they gave me my first opportunity. As much as I’d love to be the head coach of Hershey next year, the only thing I can hope for now is that other NHL teams are recognizing the work that we did here and that’ll help pay off in the next few weeks here of securing another opportunity.”Mann was a finalist for one job already and is in demand as Ottawa, Arizona and Colorado all look to fill AHL head-coaching vacancies. He has a big supporter in Trotz, who said recently the Capitals wouldn’t be Eastern Conference champions without Mann and Murphy helping develop Stephenson, Vrana Cam Atkinson Jersey Kids , Djoos, Nathan Walker, Travis Boyd and Madison Bowey.”They did a really good job,” Trotz said. ”They’ve developed well, and they’ve been a big part of it.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals— One thing is becoming more and more clear.With apologies to “Damn Yankees,” the Philadelphia Flyers had to have Hart.As in 20-year-old goaltender Connor Hart, who has made 53 saves in winning his first two NHL starts — which have also coincided with a coaching change.Article continues below ...“He’s the main reason we won the last two games,” Jake Voracek said after Thursday night’s 2-1 win over the Nashville Predators made Scott Gordon 2-0 as the Flyers’ interim coach.Said Hart, who will try to keep it going with the Columbus Blue Jackets in town for a Saturday matinee: “I’m competing and having fun.”He looked particularly sharp during a Nashville 5-on-3 advantage, with Ryan Johansen saying, “We had some good looks. The young kid in net made some good saves, made our 5-on-3 look bad.”Having a homestand at the time of the coaching and goaltending change has to have helped things get off on the right skate for both Gordon and Hart, the latter the sixth goalie to play for the Flyers this season.He plays his third straight, but what will happen Sunday on the back end of a back-to-back against the Rangers in New York?“We don’t have to make a decision as far as what Sunday is going to be,” Gordon said Friday. “Carter will start (Saturday) and we will get through the game and figure it out afterward.”Hart will face a Columbus team — and former Flyers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky — coming off a 2-1 home victory over the New Jersey Devils Thursday night.Bobrovsky, who has already defeated the Flyers twice this season, has allowed one goal in the last two games, both wins www.kingsproshop.com , as the Jackets have won three of their last four (points in all four) as they visit Philly.The goalie emerged from a tough spell and has stopped 106 of 110 shots in the last four games, going 3-0-1.“It’s not only me, it’s the team,” he said. “I think the team improved a lot in front of me. It (trickles) down to me too and my result and my numbers get better too. I think we win as a team, we lose as a team. It’s tough to break down by the pieces and say we win or lose because of one person. We have one logo on the chest and the result goes to the whole team.”Lifetime against his old team, Bobrovsky is an impressive 12-3-1, with a 2.04 goals against average and .929 save percentage. Backup Joonas Korpisalo has won his only career start against the Flyers.The Jackets play the Devils again Sunday, this time in Columbus.Cam Atkinson scored his 20th goal of the season Thursday night, the Blue Jackets’ public relation Twitter account proclaiming, “#CAMSANITY now with 20 goals in 6-straight seasons, the 2nd #CBJ player to accomplish the feat (Rick Nash; 8-straight from 2003-12). At 20 goals in 33 GP, it’s the 2nd-fastest to a 20-goal campaign in club history (Rick Nash; 20 goals in 31 GP in 2003-04).”By the way, in a stat you probably can’t live without: the win in New Jersey made the Jackets a perfect 10-0-0 on Thursdays, tied for the second-best start of a season on any day. The 2007-08 Detroit Red Wings won their first 10 Wednesdays.