Patrik Elias is calling it a career.

The New Jersey Devils legend announced his retirement from the NHL on Friday.

"After 18 seasons, I am pleased to announce that I will be retiring from the National Hockey League, having played my last game with the New Jersey Devils," Elias said in a statement.

"For the past few months, I have weighed this decision both physically and mentally. I am happy to say this provides me and my family with closure."

The Devils also announced Friday that they will retire Elias' No. 26 next season. He'll be the fifth player in franchise history to earn that honor, joining Martin Brodeur, Scott Stevens, Scott Niedermayer and Ken Daneyko.

Elias goes out as the club's all-time leader in goals (408), assists (617), points (1,025), game-winning goals (80), and hat tricks (eight).

The 40-year-old was part of two Stanley Cup championship squads, in 2000 and 2003.

Elias also won three bronze medals representing the Czech Republic - two at the world championships and one at the Olympics in 2006.

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A playoff spot was only the beginning. The Edmonton Oilers want more. Home-ice advantage, in particular.

A 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks on Thursday has the club within a point of Anaheim for first place in the Pacific Division, and Edmonton's feeling really good about its game right now.

Four wins a row, and eight wins in their last nine, in which they've outscored the opposition 37-17. Seven wins in a row at home, their last loss at Rogers Place coming March 12. A Pacific-best plus-30 goal differential. Yeah, things are good right now in Edmonton.

"We have to go through these teams in the playoffs and this is a big statement game for us," Cam Talbot said after the game. The goaltender was superb, again, stopping 38-of-40 shots.

Connor McDavid scored a brilliant shorthanded goal and added an assist, eclipsing the 90-point mark for the first time.

"We want to play these games going into the playoffs," the captain said. "We want to ramp up our game."

Guess who the Oilers play next? The Ducks, on Saturday, at home, with first place on the line.

You're not dreaming, Edmonton. Enjoy.

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All in all, Thursday was about as brutal a night as possible for the New York Islanders.

After the club fell behind 3-0 only eight minutes into the first period in Philadelphia, defenseman Travis Hamonic tried to get his teammates going by asking Dale Weise to drop the gloves. Weise obliged, the two players chucked knuckles, and they even gave each other respect at the end for a spirited bout.

Only problem: Hamonic appears to have hurt his left hand in the fight. He didn't play after the tilt, logging only 4:38 of ice time. He was spotted after the game, and it didn't look good.

The Islanders lost 6-3, and if Hamonic's done, an uphill climb for the Islanders to make the playoffs only gets, well, more uphill.

The 26-year-old has three goals and 14 points in 49 games, and went into action Thursday playing 20:47 a night.

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The Ottawa Senators aren't panicking - not yet - but they felt the need to talk some things through after another rough game Thursday.

With the opposition closing in for second place in the Atlantic Division, the club held a team meeting after being slapped around by the Minnesota Wild, according to Postmedia's Bruce Garrioch.

The Sens lost 5-1, and saw each playoff hopeful in the Atlantic win. The Canadiens clinched their playoff spot by beating Florida, the Lightning kept their hopes alive by taking down Detroit, the Bruins shut out Dallas, and the Maple Leafs secured a huge win on the road in Nashville.

Toronto, in fact, is now only two points back of the Senators, with both teams having played 76 games. Boston's three back, though Ottawa has a game in hand.

The end of Ottawa's schedule is far from kind, and the Senators have only a point to show through three games on a difficult five-game road trip. There are two more stops, in Winnipeg and Detroit - games against two non-playoff teams that Ottawa must take at least three points from. Four of Ottawa's remaining six games are away from home.

"They really took it to us," Dion Phaneuf said of Ottawa's effort Thursday against Minnesota, according to the Star Tribune's Michael Russo. "The score reflects really the whole game and if you look at how we got beat, they had more than us."

Ottawa finished with only 40 shot attempts and 19 shots on goal.

The Sens have been a strong club on the road this season, with 21 wins, but they're going to have to dig deep down the stretch, especially with a massive April 6 game looming against the Bruins in Boston.

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Doug Weight's New York Islanders suffered a crushing defeat Thursday in Philadelphia, the result almost guaranteed only 10 minutes into the game.

It was 4-0 for the Philadelphia Flyers after 9:19 of action, and 5-0 after 20 minutes, the Isles eventually dropping a 6-3 decision. After the game, Weight wasn't pleased. In fact, he was flummoxed, because his team's first period didn't add up.

"What do you say? Nothing. It's just shit," Weight said, according to Newsday's Arthur Staple. "It's not like they make tic-tac-toe plays - they had four chances in the first and it's 5-0. Four! Do the math.

"We worked, but it doesn't really matter," he added. "A piss-poor first."

That's about as accurate an assessment gets.

The Islanders have lost three in a row and are six points back of the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference, with a game in hand. The math, though, that Weight referenced, isn't pretty.

New York will host the New Jersey Devils in Brooklyn on Friday. Lose that one, and it's done, no matter what the numbers say.

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Have a night, Mark Scheifele.

The Winnipeg Jets superstar continued his breakout season Thursday in fine fashion, hitting the 30-goal mark for the first time in his career with an overtime winner upstairs past Jonathan Bernier.

Thursday also happened to be Scheifele's bobblehead night at the MTS Centre, and his finisher capped an impressive comeback. The Jets trailed the Anaheim Ducks 3-1 with under 10 minutes to play in the third period, with Dustin Byfuglien tying the game up with only 12 seconds to go.

Scheifele played a whopping 26:47, and is up to 78 points, with career-high totals across the board.

At 24, he's only getting started.

As for the Ducks, the loser point is a big one for them, as they'll remain in first place in an ultra-tight Pacific Division on Friday morning.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. - James van Riemsdyk and Auston Matthews each scored a power-play goal, and Frederik Andersen made 29 saves to help the Toronto Maple Leafs beat the Nashville Predators 3-1 on Thursday night.

Connor Brown added an empty-net goal with 58.4 seconds left as the Maple Leafs started a three-game road trip by sweeping the season series with Nashville. They also won their second straight and fifth in six games to remain in third place in the Atlantic Division.

Filip Forsberg scored his 30th of the season for Nashville. The Predators have lost two straight after a four-game winning streak.

Toronto is trying to hold off Boston, while the Predators needed a win to leapfrog St. Louis into third place in the Central Division. Nashville came in three points shy of its third straight playoff berth under coach Peter Laviolette.

It was the 1,000th game behind the bench for Laviolette, making him the 28th coach overall and just the second born in the United States to reach that mark in the NHL.

A quiet first period ended when Austin Watson took exception to a clean hit on teammate Mattias Ekholm and roughed Maple Leafs forward Matt Martin. That put the NHL's second-best power play on the man advantage, and Toronto needed only 13 seconds to convert as van Riemsdyk redirected a shot by Nikita Zaitsev past goalie Pekka Rinne at 18:42 for a 1-0 lead.

The Predators had three power plays in the second - a period in which they have outscored opponents by the biggest margin in the NHL (95-63). Yet they couldn't beat Andersen, who had a nice stop on a backhander by Kevin Fiala just before the third penalty on the Maple Leafs nearly midway through the period.

The Maple Leafs got their second man advantage when Nashville captain Mike Fisher slashed Tyler Bozak, and Toronto scored again. This time, Matthews added to his Toronto rookie record with his 36th goal of the season off a wrister as he skated up the slot just inside the left circle with 1:17 left in the second.

Andersen preserved the shutout with several nice saves in the third, including one in front from Fisher. The goaltender also killed off one last penalty when Roman Polak went in the box for holding - Andersen needed Morgan Rielly's help after the puck went off his arm and trickled near the goal line.

NOTES: Predators forward James Neal went to the locker room midway through the third period after taking a puck to the face in the neutral zone. ... Among the top 30 in games coached, Laviolette came into his 1,000th game ranked seventh in points percentage at 57.8 percent and one of 17 to win the Stanley Cup. ... It was the 10th time this season Toronto scored multiple power-play goals. The Maple Leafs had just six such games last season. ... Predators forward Craig Smith was scratched with an upper-body injury. Fisher returned after missing four games with an injury.

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By recording an assist Thursday versus Detroit, Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman now stands alone in the franchise record books.

Hedman's helper was his 66th point of the season, giving him the highest single-season total by a defenseman in Lightning history, passing the mark Roman Hamrlik set in 1995-96, per NHL Public Relations.

It goes without saying that this has been the most productive season of Hedman's career, smashing his personal best of 55 points set in 2013-14.

Hedman trails only Brent Burns (73) and Erik Karlsson (68) in points by a blueliner this season, and is proving at 26years old, he is indeed the defensive pillar Tampa Bay coveted when drafting him second overall in 2009.

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