After an ugly 7-2 loss on Monday night, Los Angeles Kings defenseman Drew Doughty is ready to wrap up the 2018-19 season.

The struggling Kings will play again Tuesday and then twice more on the weekend to finish up their regular-season schedule. But if Doughty had it his way, Los Angeles would be done even sooner.

"I wish we played all four games in a row, to be honest," he told The Athletic's Lisa Dillman. "I just want to get this over with."

The Kings are last in the Western Conference with 67 points and own the league's worst goal differential at negative-63. The club made the playoffs last season - although its run culminated in a first-round sweep - but will now miss out for the third time in five years since winning its second Stanley Cup in 2014.

Doughty, 29, has notched 44 points in 79 games this season and will begin an eight-year contract extension worth $11 million annually in 2019-20.

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For the third time in his four-year NHL career, Connor McDavid won't take part in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

His Edmonton Oilers were mathematically eliminated from contention with a 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday night, and it left the 22-year-old captain with a sour taste in his mouth.

"It sucks obviously," McDavid said afterward. "It's not good enough all year. We let streaks drag on, times where we couldn't find ways to get wins drag on. You got to find a way to stop the bleeding quick. It's a slim margin of error in this league."

When asked about his frustration level, McDavid was crystal clear.

"It's really high. It's really, really high," he said. "It's frustrating. We want to play in the playoffs as a team. I personally want to play in the playoffs. I'm not happy about it. It's going to be a long summer."

After a playoff run that ended in Game 7 of the second round in 2017, the Oilers have produced a pair of listless campaigns. This season, the organization also replaced coach Todd McLellan with Ken Hitchcock and fired general manager Peter Chiarelli.

"It's been an insane season," McDavid added. "Coaching change, GM change. Good times and bad times. It's been a roller-coaster. It's been emotionally challenging. It's been hard mentally to keep on going, but we were always kind of right there. We were close and then we'd drift away. That's the way it goes."

For his part, McDavid has been sensational in 2018-19 with a career-high 115 points through 74 games. Linemate Leon Draisaitl has also recorded more than 100 points, but the Oilers still rank 20th in the NHL with 222 goals scored and 25th defensively with 261 against.

After Monday's loss, Edmonton sits 13th in the Western Conference at 77 points with three games remaining.

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The Tampa Bay Lightning became the third team in NHL history to win 60 games in a season Monday, joining the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens and the 1995-96 Detroit Red Wings.

The Bolts' 60 wins are tied with the '77 Habs for the second-most of all time, and just two victories back of the '96 Red Wings' record of 62 triumphs. With three games left on the Lightning's schedule, they could still surpass Detroit's mark.

While neither the Canadiens nor Red Wings had the luxury of shootout wins - the Lightning have picked up six victories beyond overtime this season - Montreal and Detroit didn't have the salary cap to contend with.

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The Toronto Maple Leafs have officially clinched a playoff spot for the third consecutive season with a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders.

Toronto will meet the Boston Bruins in the opening round for the second year in a row and the third time in its last four playoff appearances.

The Leafs also tied a franchise record with their 23rd road win of the season. They'll have a chance to break that mark on the final day of the campaign Saturday when they travel to Montreal to take on the Canadiens.

Toronto has enjoyed career years from core pieces in Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Mitch Marner, and Morgan Rielly, and breakout seasons from youngsters Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen.

The Maple Leafs haven't won a playoff series since defeating the Ottawa Senators in 2004, the third-longest such drought in the NHL.

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Former New York Islanders captain Clark Gillies doesn't think leading Toronto Maple Leafs goal-scorer John Tavares was sincere about his intentions with his old team.

Ahead of Tavares' second game back in Long Island, Gillies joined Sportsnet 590 The FAN on Monday and explained he's still troubled by the way that Tavares left the Islanders for his hometown Maple Leafs as a free agent in 2018.

"If he would have been up-front and honest with the team and said, 'Look, I'm not sure. Get what you can for me. If I change my mind, I want to come back to the Islanders, I'll re-sign again next summer,' the Islanders then would have probably gotten a first, maybe a first and a second-round draft pick for him," Gillies said.

"He could have gone on his merry way. Ten years of great service to the Islanders, 'I want to go back home to Toronto,' I think everybody here would have been very happy with that. But it's just the way the whole thing went down that's got everybody in an uproar, and me included."

Although the Islanders have clinched a playoff spot and are enjoying one of their most successful seasons in several decades, Gillies also blamed Tavares for setting the franchise back in its pursuit of the Stanley Cup.

"The last thing on my bucket list is to drink out of the Stanley Cup again," Gillies said, "and in my opinion, John kinda put us back a couple of steps by not doing the right thing last summer, so yeah, I'm a little upset about that."

Gillies was a part of the "Trio Grande" line with Mike Bossy and Bryan Trottier from the late 1970s through the early 1980s. He won four consecutive Stanley Cups with the Islanders from 1980-83 and was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2002.

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The Vancouver Canucks have been impressed with Luke Schenn since he arrived in a January trade and the organization will explore offering him an extension once the regular season ends.

"We've been real happy with him and he's done everything we've asked," general manager Jim Benning told Ben Kuzma of The Province.

"He has been physical and excellent with our young players. We're going to talk about this (extension) at the end of the year. He's been a pleasant surprise for us."

Vancouver acquired the 29-year-old Schenn and a 2020 seventh-round draft pick from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for Michael Del Zotto. He's since appeared in 15 games for the Canucks, recording two assists while averaging 14:28 per night on the club's third pairing.

The right-handed blue-liner is playing on a one-year deal worth $800,000 and is scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent on July 1.

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Tampa Bay Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said defenseman Victor Hedman is doubtful to play in the remainder of the regular season as he nurses an upper-body injury, according to The Athletic's Joe Smith.

Cooper also said the club is hopeful that Hedman will return for the start of the playoffs.

Hedman was involved in a collision with Washington Capitals forward Carl Hagelin in Saturday's contest. The defenseman was forced to leave the game after Hagelin's helmet appeared to hit him in the head.

Tampa Bay has just four games remaining in the regular season and has already secured the Presidents' Trophy.

The 28-year-old Hedman has been a workhorse for the team, registering 54 points across 70 games while averaging nearly 23 minutes per night.

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