Saturday night's heavy slate of games didn't determine every Stanley Cup playoff series, but it did decide most of them.

Six of the eight matchups were set in stone on the penultimate night of the NHL regular season.

All that's left to be settled is the Atlantic Division, which will come into focus depending on what happens in Sunday's game between the Boston Bruins and the Florida Panthers.

Here's what we do know:

Eastern Conference

Metropolitan Division

Washington Capitals (M1) vs. Columbus Blue Jackets (WC1)

The division-winning Capitals get the Blue Jackets, who finished a single point and one regulation-or-overtime win behind the Philadelphia Flyers, who grabbed third place.

Pittsburgh Penguins (M2) vs. Philadelphia Flyers (M3)

This one should be an absolute dandy, as the Battle of Pennsylvania will once again be brought to the playoff stage.

Western Conference

Central Division

Nashville Predators (C1) vs. Colorado Avalanche (WC2)

The Avalanche clinched the last remaining playoff berth and eliminated the St. Louis Blues with a 5-2 victory over them Saturday night. That set up this matchup with the Predators, who clinched the Presidents' Trophy with the league's best record on Thursday night.

Winnipeg Jets (C2) vs. Minnesota Wild (C3)

We've known about this matchup since Thursday, but it should be a terrific series between two foes who aren't too far apart geographically.

Pacific Division

Vegas Golden Knights (P1) vs. Los Angeles Kings (WC1)

Ready for Vegas and Hollywood in the same playoff series? The expansion darlings will make their first forray into the postseason, and they'll do so against a Kings team that is back in the dance after missing out in 2016-17.

Anaheim Ducks (P2) vs. San Jose Sharks (P3)

Two perennially competitive rival clubs will meet in the other Pacific Division matchup when the Ducks meet the Sharks. San Jose went on a tear down the stretch to climb the standings, while the Ducks occupied second place for much of the season.

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Radim Vrbata is calling it a career.

Following Saturday's season-ending win over the Buffalo Sabres, the Florida Panthers winger confirmed this season was his last.

Vrbata signed a one-year, $3.75-million deal with the Panthers last summer, and recorded five goals and nine assists in 42 games.

For his career, he scored 284 goals and added 339 assists in 1,057 games for Florida, Arizona, Vancouver, Tampa Bay, Chicago, Carolina, and Colorado after the latter drafted him 212th overall in 1999.

Vrbata also won gold for the Czech Republic at the 2001 World Junior Championships and at the 2005 World Championships.

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The Colorado Avalanche are in and the St. Louis Blues are out.

Colorado secured the final Western Conference playoff spot with a 5-2 victory over the Blues Saturday night.

The Avalanche will face the Nashville Predators - winners of the Presidents' Trophy with the best record in the league - in the first round.

St. Louis missed the playoffs for the first time since 2010-11, ending a run of six straight postseason berths.

Colorado managed to qualify despite losing their No. 1 goaltender, Semyon Varlamov, for the season and their average time-on-ice leader, Erik Johnson, for six weeks due to injuries last Saturday.

The Avalanche (43-30-9) improved dramatically this season after finishing with the worst record in the salary-cap era (22-56-4) in 2016-17.

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Warning: Story contains coarse language

Alex Ovechkin came up short in his bid for another 50-goal season, but he didn't seem too broken up about it afterwards.

The Washington Capitals star credited his teammates in a 5-3 win over the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night, the final game of their regular-season schedule in which he scored twice to pad his league-leading total at 49, but just couldn't pot one more.

"All year they tried to find me, (when) I got closer to 600 (career goals) or another milestone, they tried to find me, but I had pretty good chances in the first, the second, and the third (periods)" Ovechkin told reporters postgame.

"But whatever, you know, shit happens," he added with a laugh.

Ovechkin led all skaters in the game with eight shots on goal.

If it's any consolation, he's now all but assured the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy, which he can win for the seventh time.

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The Metro Division playoff matchups are all set.

The Pittsburgh Penguins will host the Philadelphia Flyers in the battle of Pennsylvania. The Flyers leapfrogged the Blue Jackets with their win on Saturday to become the third seed in the division.

Speaking of the Blue Jackets, they finished as the Eastern Conference's first wild-card team, and therefore will take on the Washington Capitals in the postseason's opening round.

As for the rest of the East, the seeding for the top two spots in the Atlantic Division will be decided with the Boston Bruins' matchup with the Florida Panthers on Sunday.

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The New York Rangers officially fired head coach Alain Vigneault on Saturday night.

The news comes hours after the Rangers wrapped up their regular season with a 5-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, dropping New York's record to 34-39-9, good for last in the Metropolitan Division.

Hired in 2013, Vigneault coached the Rangers to a regular-season record of 226-147-37 during his five-year tenure, leading the club to the Stanley Cup Final in 2014 and a Presidents' Trophy campaign the next season that resulted in another Eastern Conference Finals appearance.

The team stumbled in 2017-18, however, and as the Rangers continue to rebuild on the fly, Vigneault appears to have lost favor as the bench boss to right the ship.

Vigneault is the first head coach to be fired this season - on the second-to-last day, no less.

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An offside review appears set to play a big role in deciding the final playoff spot out West.

Tyson Barrie of the Colorado Avalanche scored a pivotal goal in the second period of Saturday's game against the St. Louis Blues, but it was challenged due to an apparent offside as the puck appeared to cross back over the blue line earlier in the play.

After a lengthy review, the goal was upheld as there were no definitive replays showing the puck leaving the attacking zone. But it was really as close as it gets.

You be the judge:

The Blues need a single point out of this game to clinch a playoff spot, while the Avalanche require a regulation win.

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The St. Louis Blues were dealt a major blow in their most important game of the season.

Vladimir Tarasenko left the contest midway through the first period against the Colorado Avalanche, and the club announced in the second frame that the Blues' leading goal scorer would not return with what they would only describe as an upper-body injury.

The Blues needed a single point Saturday to clinch the final Western Conference playoff spot, while the Avalanche required a win over St. Louis in regulation to claim the position.

Tarasenko came into Saturday's contest with 33 goals and 66 points in 79 games.

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The circumstances of the modern era deserve a bit of the credit, but the Toronto Maple Leafs set a couple of impressive franchise marks Saturday night nonetheless.

Thanks to a 4-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens, Leafs netminder Frederik Andersen established new single-season goalie records for wins (38) and wins at home (23).

Toronto also set a new franchise record for points in a season (105), surpassing the previous record of 103 that was set in 2003-04.

The club finished the regular season at 49-26-7, earning seven points by virtue of losses in overtime or the shootout.

Andersen has been excellent for much of this season, but this wins record (and the fact that it was previously co-held by Andrew Raycroft) is largely a product of the modern era's elimination of ties in favor of the shootout that has increased the number of wins and losses across the league.

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The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs are national champions, defeating Notre Dame 2-1 on Saturday to claim the NCAA title.

This is the second national championship in school history, having previously won in 2011. Last year they played in the final, but lost to the University of Denver.

The Bulldogs jumped out to an early 2-0 in the first period, and never looked back, out-shooting the Irish 35-20. Karson Kuhlman led the way with a goal and an assist.

Minnesota Duluth's team defense and goaltending had been exceptional all tournament, conceding just five goals in four games, and never allowing more than 21 shots in a contest.

The Bulldogs weren't exactly favorites, either, as they began the tournament as the No. 3 seed in the West Region.

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