The Columbus Blue Jackets fired head coach Brad Larsen after two years at the helm, the team announced Saturday.

Larsen was promoted to bench boss in 2021 following a seven-year spell as an assistant with the organization. Goaltending coach Manny Legace was also let go.

"This season has been extremely disappointing, and the responsibility for that lies with all of us," general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said in a statement. "These decisions were difficult and not made lightly, given our respect for both Brad and Manny as coaches and people. Brad has been part of our organization for more than a decade, and we are extremely thankful for his hard work and many contributions - both on and off the ice - during that time. We wish nothing but the best for Brad and his family in the future."

Larsen took over the Blue Jackets' bench after the club split ways with John Tortorella. It was his first head coaching gig in the NHL. Columbus finished sixth in the Metropolitan Division in Larsen's debut year, then finished 31st in the league standings this year after a slew of injuries dashed the offseason optimism of landing star Johnny Gaudreau on a seven-year contract in free agency.

Under Larsen, the Blue Jackets owned a 62-86-16 record.

Columbus has the second-highest odds (13.5%) of winning May's draft lottery and the right to draft generational talent Connor Bedard, which could sway potential coaching suitors should it come to fruition.

There are now three head coaching vacancies across the NHL. The Anaheim Ducks let go of Dallas Eakins on Friday, while the Washington Capitals parted ways with Peter Laviolette.

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We've been evaluating several of the NHL's award races all season long, so with the 82-game schedule in the rearview mirror, it's time to pick the winners and finalists. Our team of hockey editors - Kyle Cushman, Mike Dickson, Kayla Douglas, Josh Gold-Smith, Sean O'Leary, and Josh Wegman - has assembled to do exactly that.

In the interest of transparency, we've included the voting point totals and a glimpse at each editor's hypothetical ballot - remember, these aren't official and we won't be voting in the real thing - for the six most significant individual regular season honors.

Our voting points system matches the standard one, but with an exception. As in years past, since we only have six participants, we've given additional voting power to the individual editors who covered each of the four awards we've been examining with monthly rankings.

The normal first-place picks were worth three points, the conventional second-place votes were worth two, and the standard third-place votes were worth one. The expert votes were worth double compared to everyone else's selections, so six points, four, and two for first, second, and third, respectively. The expert editors are denoted by asterisks in the charts.

Here's who we think deserves to take home the hardware:

Jack Adams Award

Montgomery nearly wins the NHL's coach of the year award unanimously by our estimation, and for good reason. His juggernaut Boston Bruins steamrolled the rest of the league during the regular season, setting numerous records in the process. He also deserves credit for effectively guiding a club that was without Brad Marchand and Charlie McAvoy at the start of the campaign.

The 53-year-old should be lauded for accomplishing all that, especially in his first season with Boston. But the Bruins are absolutely loaded with talent. They boast a Hart Trophy candidate, the Vezina and Selke favorites, other stars both up front and on defense, and an extremely deep squad as a whole. So it could be argued - as Gold-Smith essentially does here - that other coaches are more deserving because they had less to work with.

Enter Ruff, whose New Jersey Devils exceeded expectations this season. They have a solid stable of skilled players led by budding superstar Jack Hughes, but few predicted this team would be among the cream of the Eastern Conference crop before the campaign began. Bednar should also get some recognition for helping the perpetually injury-riddled Colorado Avalanche remain competitive.

Selke Trophy

This one is unanimous, as we all believe Bergeron deserves to pad his NHL record for Selke wins by being voted the best defensive forward for the sixth time. The 37-year-old Bruins center has long been a paragon of consistency on both sides of the puck. He kept that going in 2022-23, ranking near the top of the league in expected goals against per 60 minutes among qualified forwards while posting favorable numbers in many other categories.

Marner led all NHL forwards in takeaways per 60 among those who played at least six games and also placed among the league's best in terms of both wins above replacement and goals above replacement.

We didn't cover this award on a monthly basis, so we don't have an editor's expert points that could've broken the tie for third. But Barkov, Hischier, and Staal all warrant some real votes for their consistently elite two-way play.

Calder Trophy

Beniers is the clear choice to be voted top rookie. The 20-year-old led the class in goal-scoring and points while centering the top line for the playoff-bound Seattle Kraken. Beniers' development is a major reason Seattle has taken a much larger step forward this season than most expected.

Power is meeting the lofty expectations he's shouldered as the 2021 first overall pick. The Buffalo Sabres defenseman - who's also 20 years old - paced all rookies in average ice time at nearly 24 minutes and registered nearly half a point per game in 2022-23.

Maccelli flew under the radar this season because he plays for the Arizona Coyotes, but he had a sneakily impressive campaign. The 22-year-old led all rookies in total assists and finished second in the class to Beniers in points by nine despite playing 15 fewer games.

Norris Trophy

If Karlsson doesn't win the Norris, it would frankly be a travesty. This award should never be purely about points, but the veteran blue-liner became the first defenseman to collect 100 in a season since Brian Leetch in 1991-92.

Karlsson was the oldest rearguard to ever accomplish the feat and only the sixth to ever do it. The vast majority of the 32-year-old's production came at even strength, too. He was fourth in the NHL in points in those situations behind only Nathan MacKinnon, David Pastrnak, and Connor McDavid. Plus, Karlsson did all this for the lowly San Jose Sharks.

Vezina Trophy

This was by far the closest vote we conducted. In the normal points system, Sorokin and Ullmark would be tied with 15 points apiece. But this is where our expert system pays off, as O'Leary's more informed opinion gives the Bruins goaltender the narrowest possible victory.

Ullmark was spectacular for the NHL's best team this season. But Sorokin was right there with him in terms of the underlying numbers, and the Islanders netminder bested him by a wide margin in goals saved above expected at five-on-five while leading the league. Sorokin excelled with a less inspiring supporting cast, which explains why he nearly wins here.

Hart Trophy

There was rightfully no drama when it came to our MVP pick. Much like the Norris Trophy, the Hart shouldn't just be about offensive production. But McDavid crushed the rest of the NHL in that regard, so giving this award to anyone else would just seem wrong.

In our adjusted points system, Pastrnak and Tkachuk find themselves in a dead heat for second place. However, the Bruins winger earns the higher spot in a tiebreaker because he'd have one more voting point than Tkachuk in the real system, and Pastrnak appeared on all six ballots.

Pastrnak was the Bruins' catalyst, and he provided immense value relative to his skilled teammates. Tkachuk was also outstanding in many facets of the game. He was by far the best Panthers skater and only McDavid amassed more wins above replacement and goals above replacement than Tkachuk in the NHL this season.

(Analytics sources: Natural Stat Trick, Evolving Hockey)

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The Colorado Avalanche defeated the Nashville Predators 4-3 on Friday to secure first place in the Central Division.

Nathan MacKinnon scored the game-winner with under two minutes remaining to cap the hat trick.

The Avs will now square off against the Seattle Kraken, the Western Conference's first wild-card team, in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Central's No. 2 seed Dallas Stars will meet with the division's No. 3 seed Minnesota Wild in the opening round.

The rest of the postseason matchups were determined Thursday.

The victory marks the third straight division title for the defending Stanley Cup champions.

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It's another first-round rematch for a Canadian franchise as the Oilers find themselves facing the Kings - a team that took Connor McDavid and company to seven games last year. Since then, both teams revamped a questionable goaltending situation, improved their advanced metrics, and played better down the stretch of the regular season than they did at the start. For all that optimism, their reward is facing each other, and one way or another, a Western Conference contender will be sent home far too early.

Series odds

The game and series odds are comparable to last season's meeting, and the Kings can be found for as high as +210 in far away places. The Game 1 total opened the highest of any of the eight first-round series at 6.5, suggesting that the market is less certain either team has enough answers in net. Though the teams combined to go over 6.5 goals in only three of the seven games last year.

Ratings

Using primarily even-strength metrics to evaluate a team's quality, we've established how a team rates relative to an average NHL team. We use these ratings to create an implied win probability split in each game which we then translate to a fair moneyline price for each before home-ice advantage is applied, and the sportsbook takes their vig on a bet. Here's how these teams rated for the season, and when isolating play after the All-Star break.

For the season, the Kings played to a level 9% above league average but finished strong with even-strength play-rate that would make them comparable to the best teams in the NHL had they done so all season long. Part of that boost in metrics comes from keeping the puck out of the net, as their opponents scored on just 8.5% of their high-danger chances. The Oilers tantalized bettors with 18-3 moneyline record after March 1, but a look deeper at their play shows that might have been more than a little lucky.

Advanced metrics at even-strength

XG%= Expected goal share
HDC%= High-danger chance share
HDCV%= High-danger chance conversion rate
OPP. HDCV%= Opponents' high-danger chance conversion rate

*Average NHL HDCV% = ~12.5%

Since March 1st, the Oilers created 54.5% of the even-strength expected goals in their games and had 57.7% of the high-danger chances during 5-on-5 - two very good rates. In that same time frame, Los Angeles had shares of 56.5% and 59.4% in their games, but a three-game losing streak - where the Kings actually held the Oilers, Golden Knights, and Avalanche to single-digit even-strength high-danger chances - was the difference between their current resume and that of Edmonton.

Goaltending matchup

The Kings made the quietest big move at the NHL's trade deadline acquiring Joonas Korpisalo from Columbus, allowing them to literally go back-and-forth between him and Pheonix Copley throughout the stretch run. The Kings may have provided a hint that it will be Joonas carrying the wind for them to start, as he got the tune-up in the season finale on Thursday - the first back-to-back start for either Kings netminder. Since joining the Kings, he's stopped over a half-goal per game more than an average goaltender would.

Thankfully for Edmonton, Stuart Skinner stepped up when Jack Campbell faltered miserably. However, Skinner's numbers look a lot like Mike Smith's regular season stats from last year, so the hope in Edmonton is that his postseason numbers don't nosedive like Smith's in recent playoffs.

Special teams

Guess what? The Oilers' power play is awesome. The kind of awesome that will happen when you have a player on your team whose name rhymes with Lonner McShmavid. However, the Kings' power play is sneaky good, even if merely mortal at fourth in the league - just behind the Maple Leafs and Lightning. Neither team is particularly stingy on the penalty kill.

Moneyline betting guide

If you followed our NHL betting guide where we projected moneylines for each game, allowing us to compare and contrast our price to bet with what's available on a daily basis, you may be interested in what prices would be considered valuable for each team when they're on the road, at home, and for the series as a whole.

Price to bet

Not surprisingly, despite largely even metrics, the brand power of McDavid and an 18-3 close to the season that's being attributed in part to the Oilers' added depth - particularly on defense with Mattias Ekholm - has made the Oilers prohibitive to bet. In turn, the value is squarely on the side of a relatively anonymous Kings team.

Best bets

This was the same situation last year, and the Kings pushed the Oilers to a deciding game in Edmonton. With Kings +1.5 widely available at even-money and my projected price for that at -169, even if you aren't willing to completely fade McDavid after an epic regular season, betting on a close series is probably a good idea. The over 5.5 games option is fairly priced at -165 as well.

A big x-factor for this series - outside of the inexperience in net on both sides - is that the Kings could get a boost from the return of wingers Kevin Fiala and Gabriel Vilardi. Adding that depth will give Los Angeles a better chance to win the ice time that McDavid is on the bench for - a key in any matchup with the Oilers.

That may not happen in Game 1, but a moneyline at better than +150 is hard to pass up after seeing the Kings take a pair of playoff games in Edmonton last season, including the series opener.

Game 1: Kings moneyline (+160 or better)
Series: Kings +1.5 games (+100)

Matt Russell is the senior betting writer for theScore. If there's a bad beat to be had, Matt will find it. Find him on Twitter @mrussauthentic.

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The Washington Capitals and head coach Peter Laviolette mutually agreed to part ways, the team announced Friday.

Laviolette's contract is set to expire June 30. He coached Washington for the last three seasons, missing the playoffs in 2022-23.

More to come.

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Count captain Brady Tkachuk among the Ottawa Senators who are sick and tired of having their season end early.

"I just don't like being done in April anymore. I'm pretty done with it," he said during his end-of-season media availability, per TSN. "I think moving forward, it won't be the case. That's the belief in the locker room, that's the next step: We're not gonna be done in April anymore."

After bringing in Alex DeBrincat, Claude Giroux, and Cam Talbot during an electric offseason, the Senators finished the campaign six points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference and failed to make the playoffs for the sixth straight year.

Giroux entered his first season in Canada's capital with 95 games of playoff experience under his belt, and the 35-year-old veteran was disappointed to not have the chance to add to that total with the young Senators in 2022-23.

"I think we did a lot of good things. ... Saying that, honestly it's not the position we want to be in right now," he said. "Well, me personally, I know we took a step from the team they had last year, but you want to be in the playoffs. You want to be competing. It's just a little frustrating right now."

Tkachuk previously emphasized that this season felt "different" than past years, including the 2021-22 campaign when the Senators finished in seventh place in the Atlantic Division with a 33-42-7 record. Then, they were a distant 27 points out of a playoff spot.

Ottawa earned six more victories and finished with 13 more points in 2022-23.

Newcomer Jakob Chychrun acknowledged the improvement and has liked what he's seen from the club since his arrival in March.

"It's awesome. That's what you look for as a player, is to be on a team that's trending in the right direction, and I think this could be a really special few years with this group," he said. "The sky's the limit for this team and the potential that we have in there."

Chychrun could only get into 12 contests as a Senator due to injury, but he noted he was "pretty close" to returning and that he hopes to get into "every game next year."

Ottawa has some decisions to make in the summer. The likes of DeBrincat and Shane Pinto are set to become restricted free agents, while Talbot and defenseman Travis Hamonic are among those who can become unrestricted free agents.

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