The crowd roared both before and after the game for Rick Nash. Will it be the last time he hears those cheers in Columbus? Cam Atkinson scored two goals -- giving him five in five periods -- to lead the Columbus Blue Jackets to a 7-3 victory on Saturday over the New York Islanders in the regular-season finale for both teams.

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) The crowd roared both before and after the game for Rick Nash.

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Ouch. In every sense of the word for New York Islanders forward P.A. Parenteau, who left their game in the second period on Thursday night. Ouch in the way P.A. Parenteau's left leg was pinned under Winnipeg Jets defenseman Mark Stuart, sliding to the ice to stop a New York Islanders' power-play scoring chance. Ouch because Parenteau was two games away from an offseason in which he figured to make unrestricted free agent coin after an 18 goal, 49 assist season. Newsday's Arthur Staple reported Parenteau would seek and receive $4 million per year this summer, a figure his agent Allan Walsh disputed. The Islanders are calling it an ankle sprain. Here's hoping he's OK after this nasty scene, because he's a player that deserves the raise he's due. s/t Nick D.

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Ouch. In every sense of the word for New York Islanders forward P.A. Parenteau, who left their game in the second period on Thursday night. Ouch in the way P.A. Parenteau's left leg was pinned under Winnipeg Jets defenseman Mark … Continue reading ?

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NEWARK, N.J. - New Jersey Devils centre Jacob Josefson will be sidelined 4-to-6 weeks after breaking his left wrist in a game against the New York Islanders.

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Hello, this is a feature that will run through the entire season and aims to recap the weekend's events and boils those events down to one admittedly superficial fact or stupid opinion about each team. Feel free to complain about it. On Saturday night, the Sharks shut out the Dallas Stars and helped to solidify their chances of making the playoffs considerably. At the end of that game, their chances hovered just above 62 percent, up from a little less than 46 percent the night before, according to Sports Club Stats . Huge turnaround, especially because a loss there would have been disastrous in a Pacific Division in which two points separates first from fourth and, likely, a lack of a postseason berth. We can, I think, all agree that the Sharks missing the playoffs would be disastrous for the organization. This wouldn't be a case of the going from 101 points to 56 to 95 in three seasons, it would be an old team failing to capitalize on one of its few remaining years to reach a Stanley Cup Final before almost every one of their superstars gets too old to legitimately compete in the ultra-tough West. Of course, that also ignores the fact that the Sharks not missing the playoffs — sneaking into the eighth or, if they're lucky, seventh spot — is likely to be equally disastrous. The owners will make a few bucks, but they'll get flattened by Vancouver or St. Louis in a relatively short period of time and all that will have been accomplished is the extending of their season by about two weeks at best. History will show that the tragedy for these Sharks wasn't the binary option of making or not making the playoffs, but rather being in this position at all. It's a fairly curious case, after all. This was a team that smothered the Detroit Red Wings two playoffs in a row. This was a team that advanced to the Western Conference Finals in both those postseasons. This is a team that's eclipsed 100 points six of the last seven seasons, and won the Pacific four years running in relative walks. If anything, the team improved on paper over the summer. And yet here we are on April 2 with the Sharks' playoff lives very much in doubt. It's clear now that Antti Niemi probably wasn't what Doug Wilson thought he was when he got signed, at least, not if Thomas Greiss is able to put up comparable numbers. It's clear that Martin Havlat hasn't been what they wanted even when he was healthy. It's less clear, but getting clearer, that neither Joe Thornton nor Patrick Marleau are what they used to be, with the two combining for 134 points this season after putting together 143, which was itself disappointing, in 2010-11. Both retain fairly good underlying numbers relative to the quality of their competition, but two straight seasons of sub-average performances have to be worrying on some level, especially because Marleau gets incredibly favorable zone starts. [ NHL Playoff Death Watch: Pacific teams are in a war; Buffalo Sabres are in trouble ] It seems, from the outside at least, that the Sharks organization bought into the idea that it could remain as successful as they had been with the old guard — let's throw Dan Boyle in there with Thornton and Marleau for good measure — even as nearly everyone else in the division got into an arms race of young talent. Yes, Joe Pavelski (who at 27 isn't particularly "young" these days) and Logan Couture are great players, but they're also not on the level of a Loui Eriksson or Anze Kopitar or Keith Yandle. It, apparently, cannot. Teams are improving, the Sharks are coming back to earth in a very real way. ( Coming Up : The end of the line for George Parros in Anaheim?; Blue Jackets playing spoiler; Red Wings are getting healthy; Barry Trotz and the Predators get win No. 500; Ilya Kovalchuk is good; Peter Laviolette timeout works again; Mike Smith is awesome; Ken Hitchcock changes; Ray Whitney gets point No. 1,000; Jay Bouwmeester scores for the wrong team; and the No. 1 overall pick is on the move.)

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UNIONDALE, N.Y. - Sidney Crosby was bloodied after being struck in the face by a puck shot by New York Islanders defenceman Dylan Reese.

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Since we're down to the final moments of postseason life for teams in contention, Puck Daddy solemnly begins a daily countdown to annihilation. It was a quiet day in the Eastern Conference, with only one game on the schedule and … Continue reading ?

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Mikko Koskinen only played four games with the New York Islanders last season, but one of them was infamous: He was the goaltender in that brawl-filled game against the Pittsburgh Penguins that resulted in 346 penalty minutes and one strongly … Continue reading ?

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Tim Wallace doesn't score often. But when he does, it looks like this. No. 1 Star: Chris Higgins, Vancouver Canucks The Canucks winger completed a 2-goal rally with a game-tying goal in the second period, and then scored the game-winning … Continue reading ?

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