The Buffalo Sabres held on to the 5-4 win over the Philadelphia Flyers despite the latter's best efforts to come back in the end.
Coach Ruff earned his 900th career win in the season finale for the Sabres. He has now become just the fifth coach in NHL history to record 900 wins.
He needs 15 more to surpass Barry Trotz (914), 17 to surpass Paul Maurice (916), and 70 to leap Joel Quenneville (969) for second-most all-time.
But Ruff would need 345 more wins to jump the legend Scotty Bowman (1,244) for most wins in history.
Ruff previously coached the Sabres for 14 years between 1997-2011. He returned this season and led Buffalo to a 36-39-7 record, missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the 14th straight year.
Blue Jackets 6-1 Islanders
The Blue Jackets scored five unanswered goals in the second period before going on to win their final game of the season.
Columbus was recently eliminated from a playoff spot after the Montreal Canadiens defeated the Carolina Hurricanes.
Their Cinderella run was brought to a halt but undoubtedly proved fans and media alike completely wrong in a season where everyone wrote them out of even coming close to a playoff appearance.
This now makes it five straight years without a playoff appearance for the Blue Jackets and just the Islanders' second in the past seven seasons.
Penguins 5-2 Capitals
Alexander Ovechkin scored goal No. 897 in the loss to Pittsburgh, but was honoured by fans and players alike despite the long-standing rivalry, even receiving an embrace from Sidney Crosby afterwards.
While the Capitals are moving on to the first round of the playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, the Penguins have now missed their third straight playoffs - rare for an organisation of their calibre.
Prior to the 2022-2023 season, Pittsburgh didn't miss the playoffs for 16 straight seasons (2006-2022) in which they won three Stanley Cups.
Around the league
Igor Shesterkin recorded his sixth and final shutout of the season in the New York Rangers' 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Meanwhile, the Ottawa Senators put up four goals in the third period to take down the Carolina Hurricanes 7-5.
The Toronto Maple Leafs ended their season with a 4-3 overtime win as they get ready for the playoffs.
The Calgary Flames claimed a comfortable victory over the Los Angeles Kings, winning 5-1.