Yahoo Movies Panthers’ margin for error gets slimmer after loss in Philly. The latest on playoff race
The Florida Panthers don’t have an exact target number for wins and losses they think they need to hit to the make the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, but they do know they can’t afford to lose many more.
On Tuesday, they gave away one of those few losses when they fell 6-3 to the Philadelphia Flyers in Pennsylvania and, while the Panthers tried to be diplomatic about it just being another loss, and this was clearly one they regretted.
“It’s obviously a team that’s on the outside,” star defenseman Brandon Montour said Tuesday. “We want that one back.”
There were reasonable excuses — Florida was playing in its second game in as many nights, star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky got a rare day off with it being the second half of a back-to-back set, and forwards Sam Bennett and Anthony Duclair were both out — only there’s not much time left for them.
With 11 games left in the regular season, the Panthers (36-28-7) at least temporarily lost control of their own destiny by losing to the Flyers — the Islanders and Penguins both passed them in points percentage — and the schedule ramps back up after it they blew a chance against one of the league’s worst teams in Philadelphia.
Another two-game homestand is coming up for Florida against two of the best teams in the NHL, starting with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday at 7 p.m. at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise.
“You want to play against the best teams,” forward Sam Reinhart said Tuesday. “That’s brought some good hockey out of us, as well, so we’re excited about the challenge.”
The Panthers will have to rise to it.
The loss at Wells Fargo Arena dropped Florida’s postseason chances from 77 percent down to 65, according to FiveThirtyEight, and Florida’s last six homes games are all mostly against quality opponents — the Maple Leafs (42-19-9) on Thursday, the Rangers on Saturday, and the Sabres, Senators, Hurricanes and Toronto again next month.
“All the teams that we’re in the exact same boat, we’re going to lose games that we don’t want to lose, which is any time you lose a game,” coach Paul Maurice said Tuesday, “so just get the hell off the carpet, get back up and get back in the fight. The teams that get there and the teams that are good in the playoffs are resilient.”
Even with the loss, the Panthers still take confidence from the way they’ve played in March. The loss ended a season-best seven-game points streak for Florida and the Panthers still piled up 44 shots in the losing effort.
“We had more than enough offense to win,” Maurice said.
As soon as Thursday, Florida could be back in control of its own destiny, depending on how Pittsburgh fares in back-to-back games against the Avalanche and Stars.
Even if they were miffed by losing, the Panthers aren’t panicking. They made up the ground they needed to earlier this month and now they’re expecting a fight to the finish.
“We lost the game. We’ll leave it here and we move on,” Maurice said. “We weren’t looking at the last 20 games with the idea that we would win every single game.”
