Montreal Canadiens eliminate C...

The final twinkling lights of the Blue Jackets’ playoff hopes have burned out.

The Montreal Canadiens clinched the final playoff spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference by defeating the watered down Carolina Hurricanes 4-2 on Wednesday night at Bell Centre in Montreal. The Hurricanes, who finished second in the Metropolitan Division and had already qualified for the playoffs, sat seven lineup regulars to guard against injuries prior to the postseason.

The Canadiens, who needed only one point to clinch the East's second wild card and eliminate the Blue Jackets, finished with 91 points. The Blue Jackets (39-33-9) can get to 89 points by winning their season finale against the New York Islanders on Thursday at Nationwide Arena. It's a bitter way for the Jackets' playoff hopes to end after extending their playoff viability with a five-game winning streak while facing elimination in each game.

That included sweeping a home-and-home, back-to-back against the Metro's top team, the Washington Capitals, followed by a 3-0 win Tuesday night in Philadelphia, where rookie Jet Greaves earned the second shutout of his NHL career in the span of four games since replacing injured goalie Elvis Merzlikins as an emergency recall April 10.

"When we were at six games left, we knew we had to win them all," forward Mathieu Olivier said. "We figured just start with one. The rest we couldn't control. The only thing we could control through that stretch was trying to win every single game until the end. We've been handling it one win at a time, one day at a time, and when you take that approach, it’s a little easier to be resilient."

Going 81 games into an 82-game season before facing elimination is a testament to how hard the Blue Jackets played while honoring Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew, who were killed on Aug. 29 while riding bikes in Salem County, New Jersey.

It’s evidence, too, that playoff hockey is closer to happening for the Blue Jackets than anybody thought before the season. Their 14-23-4 road record is the most glaring reason the Jackets fell short, along with a 1-7-1 stretch from March 4-21 after gaining control of the East’s first wild card with a thrilling outdoor victory over the Red Wings on March 1 at Ohio Stadium.

"We definitely added some pieces this year that helped this group with what we needed," Olivier said. "I think we still have some work to do, but everyone took a step this year. We can definitely take that into the summer and start to build what we’re trying to accomplish here, which is to be a consistently winning hockey team.”

Reaching the highest point total possible is now the goal after already reaching the franchise's highest point total since finishing as the East's second wild card with 98 points in 2018-19. Dean Evason, the Jackets’ head coach, said recently that his team's motivation to finish the regular season strong wouldn’t change based on the outcome of the playoff race.

“The message is that we can’t control anything other than when the puck is dropped,” Evason said. “You can control how you prepare to play when that puck’s dropped, and then when it is, then you get after it. That’s what the team has established this year, and we’ll continue to do that regardless of where we sit in the standings or (whatever) happens.”