The Pittsburgh Penguins and the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets will finish the regular season with a Friday matchup that means different things for the teams.

The Penguins (45-25-11, 101 points) have qualified for the playoffs for the 16th straight season, the longest postseason streak of any major North American sports team.

The Blue Jackets (37-37-7, 81 points) are out of the playoff chase but are aiming to finish above the .500 mark in terms of points earned.

Pittsburgh could be described as stumbling toward the postseason, 6-9-2 since March 23, including two straight losses, and is not feeling great about its game.

Friday is the Penguins’ final chance to work on things before they face either the New York Rangers or the Florida Panthers next week in the first round of the playoffs.

Or as Pittsburgh center Teddy Blueger called it, “a dress rehearsal. We’ve got to get back to kind of playing to our identity, being more tenacious and relentless.”

The Penguins enter play Friday one point ahead of the Washington Capitals (44-25-12, 100 points) in the race for third place in the Metropolitan Division. Washington closes Friday on the road against the New York Rangers.

Pittsburgh would seal third place with a win over the Blue Jackets, while a loss could see the Penguins drop into a wild-card spot.

Considering the Penguins have failed to get past the first round of the playoffs the past three years, the game against Columbus is far more than an afterthought as they attempt to build momentum.

Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said his team needs to “build some traction, feel good about our game and put our team in the best position possible to have success moving forward. … There is still meaning to this game, and the stakes are high at this point in time.”

The Penguins have won 10 straight home games against Columbus, but stats like that don’t carry much weight compared to getting ready for the playoffs.

“I think we just want to be feeling good about our game,” Pittsburgh captain Sidney Crosby said. “The first thing probably is just limiting chances against. … We know that we have got enough guys that can score and contribute offensively and score. We’ve just got to make sure that we give ourselves a chance defensively.”

Pittsburgh already is without No. 1 goaltender Tristan Jarry, who has a suspected broken right foot. The status of winger Jason Zucker is unclear. He left the team’s Tuesday loss against the Edmonton Oilers, and Sullivan said on Thursday that Zucker was still being evaluated for a lower-body injury.

The Blue Jackets, in their final home game, knocked off the playoff-bound and two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Thursday.

The game in Pittsburgh might be anticlimactic after that, as goaltender Elvis Merzlikins said it was “really, really important to win (Thursday’s) game. (The fans) deserved it.”

Before getting up for and winning that game, Columbus was on a 1-4-1 run.

Still, there is some measure of pride.

“You want to end the season on a good note,” said Blue Jackets winger Oliver Bjorkstrand, who collected a goal and an assist Thursday and has a three-game goal streak.

“When the season’s done, you look at the games you played and think about the good things and also the things you can do better. Nice to at least have some good games here at the end.”

The Blue Jackets will be without defensemen Zach Werenski (broken nose) and Nick Blankenburg (upper-body injury) for their finale.

–Field Level Media

Not only will the seasons end for the Detroit Red Wings and New Jersey Devils on Friday night, but it’s possible their head coaches will be behind the bench for the final time.

Detroit’s Jeff Blashill and New Jersey’s Lindy Ruff could both lose their jobs sometime in the days after the Red Wings face the Devils in Newark, N.J., for the second time in six nights.

Blashill has coached the Red Wings since the 2015-16 season. They were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs during his first season in charge and haven’t qualified since then. The 2015-16 campaign was also the last time Detroit finished above .500.

The Red Wings (31-40-10, 72 points) have shown progress, mainly due to strong rookie seasons from defenseman Moritz Seider and forward Lucas Raymond, but they still have a long way to go just to contend for a postseason berth.

The players are cognizant of that fact.

“Things have to change. You have to find a way to get a winning culture here,” Detroit goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic said. “There’s a lot of history, a lot of success in this organization, but lately not so much. We have to find ways to get back to that. It’s not going to happen overnight.

“Next year is a new year. Guys have to go home and self-evaluate, look yourself in the mirror, be honest with yourself and come back next year better, stronger, faster and with a will to want to win, a killer instinct. Some nights we haven’t had that.”

The Red Wings displayed some of that killer instinct on Sunday, when they blanked the Devils 3-0. Nedeljkovic needed to make only 17 saves to record his fourth shutout.

On Tuesday, Detroit lost to Toronto by the identical score. The Red Wings were held to 20 shots on goal.

“We were able to keep it 0-0 for a long time, we had some chances to go up, and if you score, potentially it’s a different game,” Blashill said. “In a lot of ways, we put ourselves in position to win a hockey game.”

Ruff has only coached the Devils for two seasons, but they haven’t been pretty. New Jersey had a 19-30-7 record last season, and the Devils enter this season’s finale with a 27-45-9 record (63 points).

The Devils are on a five-game slide (0-3-2) after losing 6-4 to the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday.

New Jersey rookie left winger Fabian Zetterlund was a bright spot in Raleigh, N.C., scoring his second career goal.

“I think I could have scored more goals today,” Zetterlund said.

Devils left winger Jimmy Vesey, who missed the previous 10 games with a bone bruise in his leg, scored his eighth goal of the season.

“It’s tough to score in this league,” Vesey said. “We put up three goals, it’s not a bad night. But I think the goals we gave up were just too easy and some turnovers and breakdowns against a team like that, (they) are going to capitalize.”

Dawson Mercer can become the only New Jersey player to appear in all 82 games if he plays Friday night. Raymond, Seider and Pius Suter can do the same for Detroit.

–Field Level Media

The regular-season champion Florida Panthers have an opportunity to become only the fifth team in NHL history to win 59 games in a season.

The Panthers (58-17-6, 122 points), who clinched the Presidents’ Trophy for the first time in franchise history on Thursday, have a golden chance to join a rare club when they finish the regular season Friday on the road against the last place Montreal Canadiens (21-49-11, 53 points).

The record for wins in a season is 62, set by 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings and matched by the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning. The Canadiens won 60 in 1976-77 and 59 in 1977-78.

The Panthers, who have won 14 of their past 16 games, could put themselves alongside some truly elite teams.

“We’re just trying to play our best and keep building our game,” Florida forward Eetu Luostarinen said. “I think it’s a good thing for when we start to get going into the playoffs.”

Florida snapped a two-game losing streak on Thursday with a 4-0 road win over the Ottawa Senators, despite key players Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, Claude Giroux, Gustav Forsling, MacKenzie Weegar and Sergei Bobrovsky all resting in anticipation of the playoffs.

“It’s a tribute to our group that whoever plays, we compete and we play hard,” Panthers interim coach Andrew Brunette said. “We do the right things and we play the right way and we’ve bought into what we’re trying to do. It was fun.

“I think it was as much fun for the guys that sat out to watch other guys have success. That’s been them all year. They don’t care who gets the attention or who gets the goals, everybody’s happy for each other. I’ve said it a million times, but that’s what makes this group really special.”

For Montreal, the clash marks the end of a dismal season in which the only positive is having the best odds for first pick in the NHL draft.

The Canadiens have gone from reaching the Stanley Cup Final last year to finishing last overall this season. They return home after snapping a nine-game losing skid with a 4-3 win over the New York Rangers on Wednesday.

“It feels good,” interim coach Martin St. Louis said after the victory. “If we can find a way to play a hard (game on Friday), which I think we will because it’s going to be the last one, it’s going to be at home, then we can finish on a good note and get away from the game a little bit, hit the reset button for next year.

“Any kind of year like that you just can’t wait to hit the reset button. That’s what we need.”

As the season winds down, Montreal defenseman Jeff Petry is finally showing his best form. Petry scored twice in New York, including the game-winning goal with 31 seconds remaining in regulation.

Petry collected at least 40 points in each of the previous four seasons. A late run — 10 points in 10 games — has him at 26 for the season.

“It wasn’t my goal at all this year to show up and play the way I did at the start of the year, so for me it was just pushing through and trying to find that game that I had the previous three years,” Petry said. “I’m glad that it’s starting to show now.”

–Field Level Media

With the playoffs looming, the Toronto Maple Leafs will play it safe against the visiting Boston Bruins on Friday night in the regular-season finale.

Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said after practice on Thursday that 60-goal scorer Auston Matthews, his linemate Mitchell Marner, starting goaltender Jack Campbell and possibly captain John Tavares would be rested for the Friday contest.

The Maple Leafs (53-21-7, 113 points) have clinched home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, when they will play either the Bruins (51-25-5, 107 points) or the Tampa Bay Lightning (50-23-8, 108 points) starting on Monday.

The Bruins defeated the visiting Buffalo Sabres 5-0 on Thursday with captain Patrice Bergeron scoring three goals to reach 400 for his career. Tampa Bay lost 5-2 to the host Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. Boston has the regulation-win tiebreaker over Tampa Bay, which will visit the New York Islanders on Friday.

“I get feedback from the medical team, the performance team, but the most important thing is to have a conversation with the players,” Keefe said. “Give them our perspective, not so much about the upcoming game but how they’re feeling about their game and do they need to play one more. It’s really about Monday.”

Marner will fall three points short of reaching 100 for the season, but he still posted a career best total in that category.

“We have a pretty good awareness of how this year has been and how hard obviously on everyone’s body,” Marner said. “We all discussed that we thought it’s best to rest and do the right stuff until the real thing starts.

“It’s definitely tough (to miss trying for 100), but I want to make sure we’re ready to go to start the playoffs.”

Injured Maple Leafs forwards Ondrej Kase and Michael Bunting and defenseman Rasmus Sandin will not play Friday but are practicing.

Keefe is eager to know the first-round matchup.

“It’s never easy at this point of the season, starting Monday and you don’t know,” Keefe said. “It’s a high probability it’s going to be Tampa, but Boston is right there. It’s a bit easier that we’re playing Boston (on Friday) and we played Tampa twice recently.”

Linus Ullmark made 37 saves to earn the shutout on Thursday in Boston, and Jeremy Swayman is scheduled to start on Friday. Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy, however, would not name a No. 1 goaltender for the playoffs.

“I think it’ll be a little more open-ended, honestly, than any other year,” Cassidy said before the Thursday game. “Will we run with one guy? Absolutely, if he’s on. If a guy is not on, we’re not afraid to go to the other guy, because we’ve seen him play well. So that’s also in our back pocket.”

Ullmark has no playoff experience, while Swayman has appeared in just one postseason game, coming off the bench.

“It’s going to be a decision in the moment, I guess, is the easiest way to say it,” Cassidy said.

Looking ahead to the first round of the playoffs, when the Bruins will oppose either the Maple Leafs or the Carolina Hurricanes, Cassidy said, “I think you’re getting a tough matchup no matter what. Every team probably handles it differently. In our case, we’ve said, ‘Let’s be playing our best hockey when we can and be healthy.’ Try to manage the workload for your players that play a lot, so we’re sticking to that plan right now.”

–Field Level Media

The Chicago Blackhawks enjoyed playing the spoiler role on Wednesday night when their 4-3 shootout victory over visiting Vegas helped to end the Golden Knights’ playoff hopes.

The Blackhawks (28-42-11, 67 points), already locked into a seventh-place finish in the Central Division, will look to end the regular season with another win when they visit the Buffalo Sabres on Friday night.

The Sabres (31-39-11, 73 points) go into the final day of the season in fifth place in the Atlantic Division, one point ahead of the Detroit Red Wings and two points in front of the Ottawa Senators. But what makes the game special for Buffalo fans is that it will be the last one for popular broadcaster Rick Jeanneret.

Jeanneret, a member of both the Sabres Hall of Fame as well as the Hockey Hall of Fame, has helped broadcast Buffalo games for 51 years dating to Oct. 10, 1971. Special commemorative “RJ’s Last Call” T-shirts will be handed out to the first 10,000 fans at KeyBank Center.

“I hear it’s almost a sellout,” Sabres center Rasmus Asplund said after his team’s 5-0 loss at Boston on Thursday night. “It’s going to be a great atmosphere. Just take everything in and finish it off with a ‘W’ for the fans.”

The Sabres had a season-best, four-game win streak snapped with the loss to the Bruins and are 5-5-0 over their last 10 games.

“Sad it’s coming to an end,” Buffalo center Dylan Cozens said. “I think we’ve done a lot of really good things this year that makes us really excited about next (season). … We want to come out and play it like it’s any other game and play as hard as we can and try and leave a good impression going into the offseason and next year.”

Chicago comes in off back-to-back home wins over the Philadelphia Flyers and Vegas after interim head coach Derek King challenged his squad to make the fans “jump out of their seats.”

Taylor Raddysh scored twice in regulation and Tyler Johnson won it with a goal in the seventh round of the shootout as Chicago finished the season 2-0-1 against the Golden Knights.

“Well, we got the fans out of their seats,” King said of the contest that saw Chicago take a lead three different times only to see Vegas come back to tie it each time. “We gave them some entertainment. I’d like to hear what they’re saying when they’re walking back to their cars. It was a good entertainment night. It was a good game for us.”

Kevin Lankinen made 37 saves for Chicago and then wasn’t beaten on all seven Vegas shootout tries to earn just his eighth win in 29 starts this season. Caleb Jones ended a 14-game goalless drought with his fifth of the season in the second period to give the Blackhawks a 3-2 lead.

“It was fun,” Jones said. “It’s nice to spoil their party. We kind of tried to play spoiler. It was nice to give the fans a big win tonight. … We wanted to try and beat those guys and send them home, too. It was fun to get the win.”

–Field Level Media

Spencer Knight made 27 saves for the visiting Panthers in a 4-0 win against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night, and Florida later clinched the Presidents’ Trophy.

Carter Verhaeghe scored two goals while Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett each had a goal and an assist for the Panthers, who had already wrapped up first place in the Atlantic Division and the No. 1 seed from the Eastern Conference playoffs.

Later Thursday, when the Colorado Avalanche lost in a shootout to the visiting Nashville Predators, the Panthers sealed the first Presidents’ Trophy in the franchise’s 28-year history.

Filip Gustavsson made 26 saves for the Senators, who had won a season-high four straight games.

Bruins 5, Sabres 0

Patrice Bergeron’s 400th NHL goal capped his eighth career hat trick and a four-point night as host Boston won its fourth straight game by beating Buffalo.

Linus Ullmark pitched a 37-save shutout, his first of the season and fourth of his career, and David Pastrnak added his 40th goal of the season and an assist for the Bruins. Taylor Hall tallied a goal and an assist, and Brad Marchand added two assists.

Dustin Tokarski made 27 saves for the Sabres, who had their four-game winning streak snapped.

Predators 5, Avalanche 4 (SO)

Matt Duchene scored in regulation and added the only goal in the shootout as Nashville beat Colorado in Denver.

Mattias Ekholm and Roman Josi had a goal and an assist each, Ryan Johansen also scored, Mikael Granlund had two assists and David Rittich stopped 42 shots for Nashville. The Predators moved a point ahead of the Dallas Stars for the first wild card in the Western Conference.

Cale Makar, J.T. Compher, Artturi Lehkonen and Logan O’Connor scored goals and Darcy Kuemper made 33 saves for the Avalanche. Colorado lost the race for the Presidents’ Trophy but set a franchise high for points in a season.

Hurricanes 6, Devils 3

Jesperi Kotkaniemi provided a goal and two assists in his return from an injury-related absence and Carolina used a makeshift lineup to conclude the regular season in style by defeating New Jersey in Raleigh, N.C.

Ethan Bear and Martin Necas tallied goals 49 seconds apart in the first period and Teuvo Teravainen, Steven Lorentz and Jordan Martinook also had goals in Carolina’s sixth consecutive victory. Antti Raanta made 27 saves to boost his record to 7-0-1 all-time against New Jersey.

The Devils lost their fifth game in a row (0-3-2) despite goals from Fabian Zetterlund, Jesper Bratt and Jimmy Vesey and two assists from Pavel Zacha.

Blue Jackets 5, Lightning 2

Oliver Bjorkstrand had a goal with an assist and Elvis Merzlikins made 25 saves as Columbus cooled off visiting Tampa Bay.

Jack Roslovic recorded his 22nd goal while Jakub Voracek and Cole Sillinger also scored and Andrew Peeke added an empty-netter for the Blue Jackets, who have won two of three following an 0-3-1 rut.

Facing a Tampa Bay squad that totaled 26 goals to win its previous four contests and is trying to maintain third place in the Atlantic Division, Columbus killed five of the visitors’ seven power-play chances and got a solid effort from Merzlikins in its home finale.

Islanders 5, Capitals 1

Brock Nelson, Anders Lee and Kyle Palmieri scored power-play goals and Semyon Varlamov carried a shutout into the final minute in Elmont, N.Y., as New York again damaged Washington’s hopes of escaping a wild-card spot.

Jean Gabriel-Pageau and Josh Bailey also scored for the Islanders, who beat the Capitals 4-1 in the opener of a home-and-home set Tuesday. Varlamov made 26 saves.

Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored with 41.4 seconds left and Vitek Vanecek recorded 21 saves for the Capitals, who have lost three straight (0-2-1) and four of five (1-2-2). Washington was without star left winger Alex Ovechkin, who missed a second straight game with an upper-body injury.

Oilers 5, Sharks 4 (OT)

Zach Hyman scored the overtime winner to give host Edmonton a comeback victory over San Jose, allowing the Oilers to seal second place in the Pacific Division.

Ryan McLeod, Kailer Yamamoto, Derek Ryan and Philip Broberg also scored for the Oilers, who will face the Los Angeles Kings in the opening round of the playoffs. Mikko Koskinen made 40 saves for Edmonton, which has a 13-0-1 record in its past 14 home games.

Noah Gregor scored twice, while Scott Reedy and Nick Bonino added singles for the Sharks. James Reimer stopped 26 shots.

Wild 3, Flames 2 (OT)

Kirill Kaprizov scored in overtime to give Minnesota the victory over Calgary in Saint Paul, Minn., and a firmer hold on second place in the Central Division.

Frederick Gaudreau had a goal and an assist and Jonas Brodin also scored for the Wild. Cam Talbot made 31 saves for the win. The Wild have a two-point edge on the St. Louis Blues, with home-ice advantage up for grabs in their pending Stanley Cup playoff series.

Johnny Gaudreau, with his 40th goal of the season, and Elias Lindholm scored for the Pacific Division-champion Flames. Gaudreau also had an assist, Nikita Zadorov contributed two assists and Jacob Markstrom stopped 22 shots.

Canucks 3, Kings 2 (OT)

Brock Boeser scored his second goal of the game with 30 seconds left in overtime to lift Vancouver to a win over visiting Los Angeles.

Alex Chiasson also scored and Spencer Martin made 33 saves for the Canucks, who overcame a 2-0 deficit after two periods. Vancouver had lost three of its previous four to fall out of playoff contention.

Gabriel Vilardi and Adrian Kempe scored and Cal Petersen made 26 saves in the regular-season finale for the Kings. Los Angeles forward Dustin Brown, a two-time Stanley Cup Champion with and the Kings’ all-time leader in regular-season games played, appeared in his final regular-season game after announcing earlier Thursday that he was retiring.

–Field Level Media