Panthers Postscripts: Time to start looking at Florida’s potential playoff paths
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A little more than three weeks remain in the NHL regular season, and while the Florida Panthers are all but locks to make the playoffs, their path to a Stanley Cup is anything but finalized.
So with time running out, let’s dive into where things stand.
A quick reminder of the NHL playoff format: The top three teams in each division and then the top two remaining teams outside of those six teams earn wild card spots into the postseason.
The division champions would open the playoffs against the wild card teams — the division champion with the most points against the No. 2 wild card; the division champion with the second-most points against the top wild card — and the Nos. 2 and 3 in each division face each other in the first round. From there, the winner of the 2-3 matchup in each division faces the winner of the division champion-wild card playoff matchup in Round 2. The Round 2 winners meet in the conference final to determine who advances to the Stanley Cup Final. All playoff rounds are best-of-7, with the top seeded team hosing Games 1, 2, 5 and 7.
With that, here’s where things stand in the Eastern Conference entering play Monday.
Atlantic Division
1.) Florida Panthers (46-20-5, 97 points, 11 games left)
2.) Boston Bruins (41-16-15, 97 points, 10 games left)
3.) Toronto Maple Leafs (40-21-9, 89 points, 12 games left)
Metropolitan Division
1.) New York Rangers (47-20-4, 98 points, 11 games left)
2.) Carolina Hurricanes (45-20-7, 97 points, 10 games left)
3.) Philadelphia Flyers (36-27-9, 81 points, 10 games left)
Wild card
1.) Tampa Bay Lightning (39-25-7, 85 points, 11 games left)
2.) Washington Capitals (35-26-9, 79 points, 12 games left)
3.) Detroit Red Wings (36-29-6, 78 points, 11 games left)
Technically still in contention: New York Islanders (30-26-15, 75 points, 11 games left), New Jersey Devils (35-33-4, 74 points, 10 games left), Buffalo Sabres (34-33-5, 73 points, 10 games left)
The short and skinny of it: With every team having a dozen or fewer games left, the field is basically settled outside of the final wild card spot, which looks to be coming down to Washington and Detroit.
What isn’t settled is seeding, which can go a long way over the course of the playoffs.
The Panthers and Bruins in the Eastern Conference plus Rangers and Hurricanes in the Metro are all vying for the top spot, which would secure home-ice advantage at least through the conference final (Vancouver, Colorado and Dallas in the Western Conference are also in contention for the Presidents’ Trophy, given to the team with the most regular season points).
What’s more, Florida still has two more regular-season games against Boston, including Tuesday in Sunrise and April 6 in Boston.
It should make for an interesting and entertaining push down the stretch of the season.
50 for Sam Reinhart
Sam Reinhart on Sunday hit the latest milestone of his breakout 2023-24 season with the Panthers — and it’s a big one.
With two goals in a 4-1 win against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center, Reinhart now has 50 goals on the season, becoming just the second player in Panthers history to score 50 goals in a season. He joins Pavel Bure, who hit the mark twice as a Panther with 58 goals in 1999-2000 season and then 59 in 2000-2001 season.
“It’s pretty cool,” Reinhart said of the milestone in a postgame interview on Bally Sports Florida. “That’s obviously a number I’ve never really thought about. [I’m] certainly the recipient of being put in some very good positions this year, playing with some really good players, so it’s been fun.”
The Panthers have 11 games left in the regular season, giving Reinhart a chance to set the franchise record if he can average about a goal per game the rest of the way.
Road warriors
In addition to snapping a four-game losing streak on Sunday, Florida’s win at the Flyers was the team’s 25th road win of the season.
That’s the most road wins in a season in franchise history.
The previous mark was 24 in the 2021-22 season.
At one point this season, the Panthers rattled off 11 consecutive road wins, one shy of matching the NHL record.
Overall, Florida is 25-9-3 away from Amerant Bank Arena with four road games left in the regular season.
Other stories of note from this week
Our main feature this week was on one of the Panthers’ more underrated key players in Sam Bennett. He doesn’t get the acclaim that other top players on the team receive, but the team internally knows just how integral he is to their success.
“I would say he’s talked about far more in the coach’s office than he is outside,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “Players in the room certainly understand. Sam Bennett is an identity player in our room.”
▪ The Panthers formally opened their new practice facility in Fort Lauderdale to the public. Take a look inside.
▪ While Vladimir Tarasenko was the key acquisition at the trade deadline, Kyle Okposo provides a veteran presence and is adjusting to his new role with Florida after being the Buffalo Sabres’ captain the past two seasons as he chases a Stanley Cup in possibly his final season. Florida Hockey Now’s George Richards has the story.
▪ Another good story from Florida Hockey Now, this time from Colby Guy: On defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who went through two seasons of injury struggles and is now thriving in his first season with the Panthers.
The week ahead
The Panthers will play all three games this week at home: Tuesday against the Boston Bruins (7 p.m.), Thursday against the New York Islanders (7 p.m.) and Saturday against the Detroit Red Wings (12:30 p.m.).
