DENVER — Nick Blankenburg scored a second-period goal, Scott Wedgewood made 22 saves for his fourth shutout of the season and the Colorado Avalanche beat the Seattle Kraken 2-0 to break the franchise’s single-season points record.

The Avalanche won the Presidents’ Trophy with 121 points, eclipsing the total of 119 points set by the 2021-22 squad that went on to win the Stanley Cup.

Colorado hosts the Los Angeles Kings to begin the playoffs. The last time the teams played in the postseason was the 2002 conference quarterfinals when the Avalanche won in seven games.

The Kraken missed the playoffs with a final record of 34-37-11.

Blankenburg broke a scoreless game with a late second-period goal. He had a goal in the opening period overturned after Seattle challenged for offside.

Parker Kelly scored in the third period, while Valeri Nichushkin added a pair of assists. Wedgewood won his 31st game of the season. Colorado rested several key players in the season finale, including Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas and captain Gabriel Landeskog.

MacKinnon finished with a career-high 53 goals to win the Rocket Richard Trophy as the league’s goal-scoring leader.

The Kraken lost a seventh straight game to Colorado. Victor Ostman made his first NHL start and turned back 33 shots. Ostman’s debut was last season in relief.

Seattle and Colorado were a combined 0 for 6 on the power play.

Coach Jared Bednar was back behind the bench for Colorado. He missed the team’s recent two-game trip after being hit in the face by a puck last weekend.

EDMONTON, Alberta — Connor McDavid had four assists to take the NHL scoring title with 138 points and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Vancouver Canucks 6-1 to finish second in the Pacific Division and open the playoffs at home.

Edmonton will host Anaheim in Game 1. The Oilers were 7-2-2 in their last 11 to finish 41-30-12, while Vancouver was last in the NHL at 25-49-8.

McDavid won his sixth Art Ross title as the NHL scoring leader to tie Mario Lemieux and Gordie Howe for second — four behind Wayne Gretzky. McDavid reached 1,220 career points, passing Jeremy Roenick, Larry Murphy and Jean Beliveau to advance to 47th on the NHL list. McDavid entered the season 71st.

Rookie Matthew Savoie had his first hat trick, Josh Samanski, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Colton Dach also scored and Evan Bouchard had three assists. Connor Ingram made 11 saves, allowing only Ty Mueller’s first career goal.

Edmonton was buoyed by the return of forward Zach Hyman and is expecting star forward Leon Draisaitl back during the opening series.

The New Jersey Devils hired Sunny Mehta as their general manager, bringing back their former director of analytics to oversee their hockey operations department.

Owner David Blitzer announced the hire less than 48 hours after the team’s regular season ended without a playoff appearance. Mehta was an assistant when the Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup each of the past two years.

“We quickly realized this job was in high demand and were incredibly fortunate to meet with many qualified candidates,” Blitzer said. “Sunny’s familiarity with our organization and experience with a two-time Stanley Cup-winning team are characteristics that will serve as a foundation for future success. Our expectations are to be a perennial playoff team and compete for the Stanley Cup, and I look forward to Sunny leading us there.”

Mehta, 48, established the NHL’s first full-fledged analytics department when he joined his home-state Devils in 2014 and worked for them through 2018. He spent time with Washington before going to Florida.

The Toronto Maple Leafs, who also had a vacancy after firing Brad Treliving late last month, also showed interest in Mehta, given their interest in a numbers-driven GM. The Devils beat Toronto the punch.

Raised in Wyckoff, New Jersey, Mehta grew up a Devils fan. He had a career as a professional poker player and worked in finance before getting into hockey.

“I knew this was the place I wanted to be,” Mehta said, thanking the Panthers for the chance to take the next step in his career. “New Jersey has a tremendous young core that will be looking to get back to being a contender, a complement of young assets and draft picks, and a passionate fan base hungry for success.”

The Devils parted ways with longtime GM Tom Fitzgerald late in the season. The future of coach Sheldon Keefe is not clear, though he guided the team to the playoffs in his first year in charge.

Mehta takes over at an important time for the franchise, with U.S. Olympic hero Jack Hughes at the center of a young core and captain Nico Hischier eligible to sign an extension as soon as July 1.

“I’m focusing on playing hockey here,” Hischier said about it the morning after Fitzgerald left. “I still have one more year. I’m with the Devils right now, and then we’ll see what happens.”

If he is able to trade defenseman Dougie Hamilton this summer after his $7.4 million roster bonus is paid, it will clear up valuable salary cap space to use to improve the forward group.

DALLAS — Glen Gulutzan was ready to be the head coach of the Dallas Stars this time.

There was a lot of experience Gulutzan gained in the 12 years between being let go by the Stars after his first two seasons as an NHL head coach and being re-hired last summer — by the same general manager who soon after taking that role in 2013 decided not to keep him.

“He’s lived it. How do you build your résumé, you’ve got to go through experiences,” Stars GM Jim Nill said. “He’s gone through those experiences and those situations.”

The 54-year-old Gulutzan now is leading the Stars (50-20-12) into the Western Conference playoffs. Game 1 is at home against Central Division rival Minnesota. They wrapped up their third consecutive 50-win regular season with 112 points, the third-most in the NHL.

After the Stars fired Pete DeBoer last June, even though each of his three seasons ended in the Western Conference final, Nill brought back Gulutzan after a dozen seasons in Canada for 947 regular-season games and 93 more in the playoffs. He was a Vancouver assistant for three seasons, then the head coach in Calgary for two before seven seasons on the staff in Edmonton, which eliminated Dallas in the West final each of the past two years.

“He’s got composure behind the bench. He’s guided our team,” Nill said. “There’s been highs and lows during the year, there’s a lot of injuries he’d had to deal with. But he’s gotten that experience now, how to deal with that. And it doesn’t change focus. It’s always about the next moment, the next game.”

First time with the Stars

Gulutzan was coaching the Stars’ AHL team before becoming a first-time NHL head coach in 2011, during an awkward period for the franchise as it went through bankruptcy and an ownership change while being basically run by the league.

Dallas was 42-35-5 in Gulutzan’s debut season, then 22-22-4 in the lockout-shortened 2012-13 season before Nill became the GM and didn’t pick up the coach’s option for a third season.

Not always a head coach

DeBoer has been a head coach for six different teams over 18 seasons, including the final four games for the New York Islanders this year after replacing the fired Patrick Roy.

While DeBoer always has been in charge behind the bench in the NHL, Gulutzan after his initial head coaching stint got the opportunity to work with coaches like John Tortorella, Ken Hitchcock, Dave Tippett and Kris Knoblauch. He was part of 75 playoff games with the Oilers the past four seasons, getting to the Stanley Cup Final twice after eliminating the Stars.

Having been a depended-on assistant himself, Gulutzan now heavily depends on his staff.

Solid foundation in Dallas

Gulutzan took over a Stars team that returned most of its primary core, though the only player still around from his first time there is Jamie Benn, the 36-year-old captain in his 17th season.

Veteran center Matt Duchene said DeBoer did an amazing job laying a foundation, and that Gulutzan has done a nice job tweaking things through the course of this season.

“Just a really, really smart hockey mind that sees the game really well,” said Wyatt Johnston, the 22-year-old, fourth-year forward whose 45 goals matched Jason Robertson for the team lead.

“He’s brought in some elements to our team that have made us, when we’re at our best, probably just an elite, elite team, and I think understands our group pretty well,” Duchene said. “There’s a reason you go to three straight conference finals. It’s not by accident. You need great coaching to be able to do that. And I think Pete was that for sure and then Gully coming in ... he didn’t come in being like, all right, it’s my show now, I’m going to completely gut this and redo it.”

Under DeBoer, the Stars became the first team to reach the conference finals three seasons in a row without winning at least one Cup title under the playoff format that began in 1994. The Stars didn’t even make it past that.

Streaking Stars

The Stars had a franchise-record 10-game winning streak that ended in early March, and now have won five in a row. That’s a stark difference from the seven-game losing streak they took into last year’s postseason.

“The focus, that’s what I’m recognizing as very, very similar,” Gulutzan said when asked what he’s seen in the Stars compared to his recent deep runs with the Oilers. “You can just feel the focus of the players starting to change the closer they get. ... Their demeanor is starting to change.”

LAS VEGAS — General manager Kelly McCrimmon was walking away from the Golden Knights’ locker room after a victory over the Jets, but he easily could have reversed course and done a victory lap in front of the assembled media.

McCrimmon probably would say it’s too early to celebrate because the NHL playoffs have yet to begin, and that will be the true measure of how successful Vegas’ season is viewed.

But it’s difficult to argue his controversial decision March 29 to fire popular and successful coach Bruce Cassidy and hire John Tortorella hasn’t worked out.

Going into its playoff opener at home against Utah, Vegas is 7-0-1 under the fiery coach known as Torts. A team struggling to hang on to a playoff spot just won the Pacific Division for the fifth time in their nine years.

Top center Jack Eichel, who had 90 points for the second consecutive season, said Tortorella injected confidence in a team that was lacking it just three years after winning the Stanley Cup.

“Sometimes you need a reminder,” Eichel said. “He saw we have a really good hockey team in here and we need to believe in ourselves and in each other. That’s the first step to being a great hockey team is believing in ourselves. I think you’ve started to see that the last few weeks. We started to build more confidence in each other and our game.”

The 67-year-old Tortorella, who led the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup title in 2004, said at his introductory news conference that he wouldn’t overload the team with information and make massive changes. It’s a strategy he’s stuck to since then.

“I knew it was a good team coming in,” Tortorella said. “I know it was coached well prior to me. I had some points of emphasis, probably three or four, that I want to bring across to them. We’ve done that. I think they feel good about themselves. When you win some games, you feel good about yourself, and hopefully we keep on building on that.”

Tortorella made two notable changes that have worked.

One was to create a more aggressive north-south game. Vegas went from scoring 3.12 goals per game and allowing 3.07 to outscoring opponents on average 4.13 to 1.88.

“Attack the games. Put pressure on the other team,” Eichel said.

The other move was to go with Carter Hart as his primary goalie. Cassidy installed Adin Hill in that role down the stretch, but Tortorella coached Hart in Philadelphia and has spoken glowingly about him. Tortorella said Hart was carrying the Flyers into contender status in 2024 before he was suspended by the NHL as one of five 2018 Canada world junior hockey players accused in a high-profile sexual assault case.

They were acquitted last July. The league reinstated those players beginning Dec. 1 and the Golden Knights gave Hart a chance. He has delivered under Tortorella’s watch, going 6-0 with a .930 save percentage and a 1.66 goals-against average.

“I think he looks dialed in,” Tortorella said. “I just think he’s making saves. He just looks confident, and hopefully that’ll continue. I think Hilly’s last couple of starts, he’s made some really good saves also. So going into the playoffs, if both of them are going well, that’s a good thing for us.”

McCrimmon said the decision to fire Cassidy was a difficult one, especially since the coach was responsible for the organization’s only Stanley Cup and they were consistently on the same page. But the GM said the season and its playoff chances appeared to be slipping away and there was little time to wait. He knew the decision would be criticized but that wasn’t the point.

“When we’ve changed coaches along the way — I’m going to say each time — it was likely viewed in this room as being unpopular or not the right time,” McCrimmon said March 30 at a news conference. “And I think in each case, the decisions were good ones.”

The decisions to fire Gerard Gallant in 2020, Pete DeBoer in 2022 and Cassidy this year — all with winning playoff records — were met with wide skepticism but management largely got the results they desired.

That includes with Tortorella, but the postseason is coming.

Then the true verdict will be delivered.

So the victory lap is on hold — for now.

As the Sabres opened practice, Buffalo city workers began hanging playoff banners on lamp posts lining Washington Street leading to the team’s arena entrance.

The significance wasn’t lost on Sabres captain Rasmus Dahlin in realizing that for the first time in 15 years, the Stanley Cup playoff route finally includes a stop in Buffalo.

“It’s a crazy feeling,” Dahlin said. “I’ve been grinding here for a long time, and I finally get playoffs. It’s special. It’s something I’ve tried to do here for a long time. And now it’s finally real.”

Ending the NHL’s longest postseason drought, the Sabres’ return to the playoffs — and as first-time Atlantic Division champions — reflects a changing of the guard in the Eastern Conference.

Though familiar fixtures remain in Tampa Bay and Carolina, this year’s eight-team mix doesn’t include two-time defending Cup champion Florida or perennial contender Toronto. All three New York City-area teams were shut out of postseason play for the first time.

In their place are upstarts such as the Philadelphia Flyers, who last qualified in 2020. Montreal and Ottawa are making a second straight appearance following lengthy postseason lapses.

Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins return after a three-year absence. The Boston Bruins are back after a one-year hiatus, making a 24-point jump under first-year coach Marco Sturm.

“I never thought, to be honest with you, about getting 100 points because I know how hard it is to get that amount in this league,” said Sturm whose team opens against Buffalo. “It’s a hard league, and that just says it all.”

The teams to beat

— The Tampa Bay Lightning remain the East’s model of consistency, qualifying for a ninth consecutive season out of the rugged Atlantic Division.

“Does it battle test you?” asked Jon Cooper, a two-time Cup winner. “Yes. But also, there’s no easy road. I don’t think anybody’s hiding anything from anybody.”

The Lightning open against Montreal in a meeting of two teams that finished with 106 points, and rematch of Tampa Bay beating the Canadiens in five games in the 2020 Cup final. The challenge for Tampa Bay is advancing past the first round for the first time since losing the final to Colorado in 2022.

— Carolina ran away with the Metropolitan Division title and top spot in the East, going 53-22-7 to clinch its eight consecutive playoff berth.

Competitive as they’ve been, the Hurricanes have yet to reach the Cup final since winning in 2006. They open against Ottawa, which was 10 points out of contention on Jan. 30 before going on a 24-8-6 run to clinch a spot.

“Everyone’s in the playoffs, and everyone’s in a sense the same seed,” Carolina forward Seth Jarvis said. “It’s cool to be No. 1, but I don’t think it’s changed anything within our group. Just have a little more confidence, maybe.”

— The Sabres are confident after making a remarkable turnaround from last in the East in early December to first place by going 39-9-4.

“The only way you get experience is to do what we did in the regular season and get there,” coach Lindy Ruff said, dismissing concern over the Sabres lacking playoff experience. “They handled all the pressure situations. When we needed to win games, the group came up.”

The underdogs

— The Flyers overcame youth and inconsistencies to become the last East team to clinch a berth. They did so courtesy of a 14-4-1 run, becoming the NHL’s first team to make it after being 10 points out of contention with 22 or fewer games remaining.

“We really try to block it out, I’m not going to lie. There’s a lot of negativity, sarcasm. We kind of grew together,” first-year coach Rick Tocchet said. “We believed. It’s hard, because you have to have that thick skin.”

— The Senators aren’t backing down in the face of playing Carolina, seeking to build off losing to Toronto in six games in the first round last year.

— The Bruins have been transformed since their 2019 run to the final. General manager Don Sweeney believes in how the team came together to bounce back from last season’s swoon.

“To get to 100 points is a pretty good testament to what this team put together over the course of the year, but it wasn’t easy,” Sweeney said. “It was nerve-racking, but our guys embraced it and they got it done.”

Storylines to watch

— In his fourth season as Canadiens coach, Martin St. Louis faces a familiar foe in Tampa Bay. St. Louis spent 13 seasons with the Lightning and was a member of the franchise’s 2004 Cup-winning team. He becomes the second player to have his number retired and face his former team in the playoffs as a coach. Chicago coach Brian Sutter was the only other to do so when the Blackhawks faced the St. Louis Blues in 2002.

— Crosby joins Evgeni Malkin in making their 16th playoff appearance together. They’ve won the Stanley Cup three times, most recently in 2016 and ’17. The Penguins haven’t won a series since eliminating the Flyers in six games in the first round of the 2018 playoffs.

“I think after some seasons not being able to do it, I think we appreciate it even more,” the 38-year-old Crosby said.

Predictions

First round: Carolina beats Ottawa in five games; Pittsburgh beats Philadelphia in six; Montreal beats Tampa Bay in seven; Buffalo beats Boston in seven.

Second round: Carolina beats Pittsburgh in six; Buffalo beats Montreal in six.

Conference final: Carolina beats Buffalo in seven.