What to Make of the Florida Panthers’ Late Season Slump
The Florida Panthers have dropped their past five games and are danger of falling into a wild card spot. Is it time to panic or is it just the injuries?
The Florida Panthers have all but lost hope of winning the Atlantic Division, but does it matter?
The Panthers have lost its past five games heading into their final homestand of the season. It is a streak that includes a weekend back-to-back in Ottawa and Detroit which nearly ended in consecutive shutouts before Mackie Samoskevich broke the drought with 39.9 seconds remaining in regulation.
It marks the first five-game losing streak that Florida has suffered since the 2018-19 season.
But is it enough of a reason for the reigning Stanley Cup Champions to panic?
The decision to rest Sam Bennett, Sam Reinhart and Gustav Forsling on Sunday night when Aleksander Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, and Matthew Tkachuk headlined the five other unavailable players that night suggests otherwise.
Florida locked up its playoff spot on Saturday night, that was the important part.
The next important part after that is getting there healthy.
The Panthers have played nearly 300 games since the 2022-23 season, and they knew they needed to manage those minutes.
Reinhart played in all 285 games they played in the past three years and Forsling played in 282 of those 285 games. Both of them also played additional games this season at the 4 Nations Face-Off. They needed a day off on Sunday and will likely get at least one more before the regular season is finished.
With Barkov, Nico Sturm and Dmitry Kulikov expected to return from injuries at some point during the homestand this week, it will allow the Panthers to manage minutes while also icing a more complete lineup going forward.
And they are OK with wherever they end up because they know they are capable of winning in the playoffs no matter who they get and where the series starts.
They went through a gauntlet run in 2023, knocking out the NHL’s best regular season team of all-time in seven games before going on the road and knocking out the Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes in five and four games respectively. Most of that core is still intact.
The important thing for the Panthers is sticking to their style and staying healthy, and they have done a decent enough job at that.
Florida has lost three of its past five games by one goal, with only one of them being a clear off night. The Panthers held the lead in three of those games and they allowed more than three goals just once in that stretch — and the lone four-goal game had an empty-netter scored in it.
They are sticking to their guns defensively. They have just scored six goals in the past five games, which happens when so many of your top offensive weapons are out of the lineup.
There are a few things to be concerned about with this team.
Carter Verhaeghe is on a 13-game goal drought and his shooting percentage has dipped in half since last season. That has been an ongoing theme since the beginning of the season.
The Panthers have gotten picked apart off the rush quite a few times during this losing streak, but how much of that has to do with the fact that Ekblad, Kulikov and now Barkov have missed games during that stretch.
Only time will tell what comes of those things, but Florida has its eyes on the playoffs — and getting there healthy.
The Panthers are not concerned with who their opponent will be.