Florida Panthers Clinch Sixth Consecutive Posteason Berth
The Florida Panthers will look to defend their 2024 Stanley Cup title after clinching their sixth-consecutive postseason berth.
The Florida Panthers are officially playoff bound to defend their 2024 Stanley Cup title.
By virtue of a Toronto Maple Leafs win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Panthers locked up their sixth consecutive postseason berth.
Florida squeaked into the 2020 bubble — losing to the New York Islanders in the qualifying round — before making the playoffs in all five years since.
General manager Bill Zito was hired in the offseason and the Panthers have been a model of consistency ever since. They won their first playoff series since 1996 in 2022, defeating the Washington Capitals in six games, before making back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 2023 and 2024.
Of course, they lifted the Stanley Cup in 2024 and they are hungry for more headed into the 2025 playoffs.
They loaded up at the trade deadline with that purpose in mind, adding stars Brad Marchand and Seth Jones, as well as depth pieces Nico Sturm and Vitek Vanecek, to bolster their roster.
As far as the rest of the regular season goes, the Panthers will have an uphill battle.
They currently sit in third place in the Atlantic Division — six points behind the Maple Leafs for first and behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for second — with six games remaining in the regular season.
The Ottawa Senators also loom four points behind Florida for that third spot after beating them 3-0 on Saturday afternoon.
The Panthers play Tampa Bay and Toronto once each, play the desperate Detroit Red Wings twice, the wild card hopeful New York Rangers once and the Buffalo Sabres once to close out the season.
They will have to gain ground without Matthew Tkachuk (who is on long-term injured reserve) and Aaron Ekblad (who is suspended until Game 3 of the playoffs) for the remainder of the regular season.
Aleksander Barkov, Nico Sturm and Dmitry Kulikov will also miss at least one more game with their respective injuries. They are all expected to return during the latter half of Florida’s final homestand next week.
If the standings stood where they are to end the year, Florida would open the postseason on the road in Tampa Bay. The cross-state rivals have played each other three times in the past four years with the Lightning winning two out of the three series.
Florida defeated Tampa Bay in five games in the second round en route to its Stanley Cup victory last year.