Peter Chiarelli didn’t feel like he could wait another day.The Edmonton general manager didn’t sleep well after another tough loss Womens Kris Russell Jersey , put the wheels in motion to replace coach Todd McLellan with Ken Hitchcock and made the move on Tuesday — a game day. After no in-season coaching changes around the NHL last season, there have now been four in less than three weeks.The standings are still so close and volatile that it’s almost never too soon to decide to fire an NHL coach.“Unfortunately as it is, that’s the way it’s trending,” Chiarelli said. “The margins are thin and you look for edges and that’s one of them.”Los Angeles fired John Stevens on Nov. 4, Chicago fired three-time Stanley Cup winner Joel Quenneville two days later, St. Louis dismissed Mike Yeo late Monday and Edmonton followed suit with McLellan on Tuesday morning. The Kings had played 13 games, the Blackhawks 15, the Blues 19 and the Oilers 20, but it is no longer surprising to see such a drastic move before the quarter mark of the season.Hall of Fame defenseman Scott Stevens, now an NHL Network analyst, won the Stanley Cup as a player after a late-season coaching change and took over as co-head coach with New Jersey during the 2014-15 season. He said he was only caught off-guard by Quenneville’s firing and understands why so many GMs are pulling the trigger so early.“I think a lot of times the GM has the pulse of everything that’s going on and knows when the time’s right to make that move,” Stevens said. “I believe every team thinks they have a chance to win the Stanley Cup. … Everyone feels they have a chance to win, and sometimes you just need a little luck.”Or at least a big change.“You can’t trade every player Leon Draisaitl Jersey , so they fire the coach to try to get everybody’s attention,” NBC Sports analyst Pierre McGuire said.The calendar got Chiarelli’s attention because Thanksgiving typically serves as a barometer of which teams will make the playoffs. It’s an uphill climb for Hitchcock, the Kings’ Willie Desjardins , Blackhawks’ Jeremy Colliton and Blues’ Craig Berube to try to lift their teams out of rough starts and make it.Sometimes, interim or replacement coaches are wildly successful after arriving during the season. The Penguins in 2009 with Dan Bylsma and 2016 with Mike Sullivan and the Kings in 2012 with Darryl Sutter won the Cup. The Flyers in 2010 with Peter Laviolette reached the final.McGuire, himself a midseason replacement with the Hartford Whalers in the 1990s, said he believes this recent run of firings has something to do with the Vegas Golden Knights reaching the final last season as an expansion team, causing frustration around the league about quick results. Still, early-season coach firings are a time-tested part of the NHL.“Coaching changes right around this time made huge differences,” McGuire said. “People look at this over history and they say this can happen. Pittsburgh and L.A. are good examples of that.”UPPER HAND SHORTHANDEDThe Arizona Coyotes have killed off a league-best 91.7 percent of power plays, and their 10 short-handed goals are six more than the next-closest team. Michael Grabner has four, Brad Richardson three and Arizona has only allowed five power-play goals through its first 19 games.Coach Rick Tocchet said Grabner, Richardson and his other penalty killers have done an excellent job of applying pressure with three players and the fourth making smart reads to take it the other way.“Especially for PK guys http://www.officialhockeypanthersshop.com/authentic-adidas-roberto-luongo-jersey , they really have a good hockey IQ on knowing when to attack pressure,” Tocchet said. “The guys have done a nice job, like Richardson and Grabner especially, of making really good reads on when there’s a time to pressure and where that read is going to be. Sometimes you guess wrong but I think this year we’ve done a nice job guessing right.”GAME OF THE WEEKThe defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals on Saturday visit the New York Rangers, who have been among the league’s biggest surprises under first-year coach David Quinn.LEADERSGoals: David Pastrnak (Boston), 17; Assists: Mikko Rantanen (Colorado), 24; Points: Rantanen, 32; Ice time: Drew Doughty (Los Angeles), 26:53; Save percentage: Pekka Rinne (Nashville), .942; Goals-against average: Rinne, 1.69. DETROIT (AP) The Washington Capitals are in first place because of victories like this.Philipp Grubauer made 39 saves for his third shutout of the season, and Brett Connolly scored the game’s only goal on a third-period breakaway to lift the Capitals to a 1-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night. Washington was far from dominant, but the Capitals created the game’s best scoring chance and that was enough.”I know they had a lot of shots http://www.officialkings.com/authentic-adidas-alex-iafallo-jersey , but this was a pretty easy game,” Grubauer said. ”The guys kept the front of the net clear, so I could see everything they were taking.”Washington is last in the NHL in shots per game, but the Capitals have won six of seven and lead Pittsburgh and Columbus by four points atop the Metropolitan Division as the regular season winds down.Washington has turned increasingly to Grubauer of late after Braden Holtby struggled in February and at the beginning of March. Holtby wasn’t available Thursday because of an injury coach Barry Trotz described as a tweak.The Capitals took the lead with 13:19 remaining after Detroit defenseman Xavier Ouellet couldn’t control the puck near Washington’s blue line. Connolly and teammate Jakub Vrana went the other way on a two-man breakaway , and Connolly beat Jimmy Howard with a wrist shot to the glove side.Connolly has 15 goals this season on 64 shots.”You can get too cute on a 2-on-0, and I didn’t want to mess it up,” Connolly said. ”I think Howard was expecting a pass, but I haven’t had many good looks in the last few games, so I was taking this one. I needed it.”Howard was indeed expecting a pass.”The way Vrana opened up for the one-timer, I was expecting at least one pass,” Howard said. ”He caught me by surprise there.”Detroit has lost 11 of 12 and was mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. The Red Wings will miss the postseason for a second consecutive season.The Red Wings had a goal called back for goalie interference in the first period – replays showed Tyler Bertuzzi appearing to make contact with Grubauer in front of the net. Detroit squandered a great opportunity in the second when the Red Wings had a two-man advantage for the full 2:00.”Gru was the difference in the game. Detroit had a great game plan and really used their speed to box us up,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said. ”We were in a lot of tough spots, but Gru kept making the big saves we needed. We just need to score a few more goals for him.”Andreas Athanasiou had a breakaway in the third Womens Anze Kopitar Jersey , but couldn’t beat Grubauer . Athanasiou had another chance in the final minutes, but his deflected shot went wide as Grubauer tried unsuccessfully to grab it with his glove.NOTES: The Red Wings announced before the game that D Mike Green will have season-ending surgery on his cervical spine. ”This dates back to a year ago, basically. He’s played through it. We knew at some point that this was inevitable,” coach Jeff Blashill said. ”I know there was some wondering why Green wasn’t traded. Well, this was why, because teams knew that if again, if he took the wrong hit, he might be out.” … Capitals F Evgeny Kuznetsov missed a third straight game with an upper-body injury. … Washington signed D Tobias Geisser to a three-year entry-level contract beginning in the 2018-19 season, and the Capitals also recalled G Pheonix Copley from the Hershey Bears.UP NEXTCapitals: Visit the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night.Red Wings: Visit the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.—