The Ottawa Senators and forward Zenon Konopka have been fined by the NHL for "verbal abuse" directed at New York Rangers center Brian Boyle before the Senators' game against the Rangers on Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.

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Henrik Sedin scored the only goal Vancouver needed and the Canucks won the Presidents' Trophy with a 3-0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night.

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There will be no playoff hockey for the Winnipeg Jets or Tampa Bay Lightning, but these clubs have more to play for in Saturday night's season finale than trying to avoid a last-place finish in the Southeast Division.

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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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OTTAWA - Daniel Alfredsson had two goals and two assists, and the Ottawa Senators dealt Pittsburgh its first regulation loss in 15 games, beating the Penguins 8-4 on Saturday night.

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Steven Stamkos took very little enjoyment out of his record-tying night because the Tampa Bay Lightning aren't in postseason contention. Stamkos scored twice to tie the Lightning's single-season record with 52 goals, and Tampa Bay beat the New York Islanders 4-3 on Saturday night. "I don't think it means too much right now with where we are in the standings," Stamkos said.

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Danny Briere scored two of Philadelphia's three-power play goals to help the Flyers past the Montreal Canadiens 4-1 Saturday night. Kimmo Timonen and Matt Read also scored for the Flyers, who clinched a berth in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 16th time in the last 17 seasons...

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TAMPA, Fla. - Jaroslav Halak made 22 saves, Jaden Schwartz scored his first NHL goal, and the St. Louis Blues beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1 and became the first team to clinch a playoff spot Saturday night.

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TAMPA, Fla. - Jaroslav Halak made 22 saves, Jaden Schwartz scored his first NHL goal, and the St. Louis Blues beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-1 and became the first team to clinch a playoff spot Saturday night.

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The New York Islanders have had a frustrating habit of blowing late leads this season, and they nearly let another one slip away Saturday night. But Josh Bailey scored the shootout winner to lead the Islanders to a 3-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens. Mark Streit and Frans Nielsen scored in regulation and Al Montoya made 28 saves for the Islanders, who snapped a five-game losing streak.

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