Panthers still fighting, but will need help to reach playoffs
SUNRISE, Fla. -- A season removed from having the second-worst record in the NHL, the Florida Panthers find themselves still alive in the Eastern Conference playoff race with four games left to play.
On the brink of elimination following a disheartening loss to the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night, the Panthers picked themselves up in time to route the Carolina Hurricanes 6-1 at the BB&T Center on Thursday night.
The end may be near, but the Panthers don't plan on skating gently into that good night.
"It was a tough loss against Boston; that's who we're chasing right now," said forward Vincent Trocheck. "But you can't really dwell on that in hockey now. You have to have short-term memory loss. We spent the night thinking about it and going over our shifts, but the next day we kind of just had to forget about it and move on.
"We've got five games here at home and we went into it tonight thinking that we're still in this race. We've just got to keep winning games and play our game, and that's what we did tonight."
With a come-from-behind victory over the slumping Detroit Red Wings on Thursday, the Bruins now need just two points to mathematically eliminate the upstart Panthers.
In order to secure a playoff berth, Florida will need to go 4-0-0 to close out the season while the Bruins must finish 0-3-1. The Ottawa Senators, meanwhile, must finish no better than 2-3-0 or 1-1-2 in their final five games.
"We still believe because you never know what can happen," said Jonathan Huberdeau, who pushed his team-leading point total to 51 with two assists.
"We're going to keep working. This is a good group. We feel we can't let down now. You miss hockey in the summer. We're going to go all out and hope we can squeeze in there."
Regardless of where they finish, Thursday night's lopsided victory over the Hurricanes was proof of the Panthers' immense progress this season. Roberto Luongo stopped 31 of 32 shots for his 400th-career NHL victory while seven players under the age of 25 combined to score 12 points, including a career-high two goals for Trocheck.
"Everybody wants to score goals, that's the goal of hockey," Trocheck, 21, said with a grin. "It was a lot of fun tonight. I had a couple of plays in the second period that I needed to redeem myself for, so that's what I was thinking going into the third period. I just played my game, those goals came and it was pretty big."
As for Luongo, who became just the 11th goaltender in NHL history to reach 400 career victories, the 35-year-old netminder expressed some regret that he couldn't reach the milestone sooner when Florida's postseason hopes weren't as dim.
"I don't take it for granted," said Luongo, who improved to 27-18-12 on the year. "I'm blessed to have played this long in the NHL and doing something that I love. But at the same time, I would have liked to get it maybe a few games earlier and maybe get a few more points in the standings. Right now it's not something that I'm really focused on, but I'm blessed to have been able to play in this league for so long."
The Panthers season-ending homestand continues with back-to-back games this weekend against the Tampa Bay Lightning and Montreal Canadiens before a pivotal rematch against the Bruins next Thursday.
A trip to the playoffs is a longshot at this point, but the Panthers plan to hold on until the bitter end.
"If we play the right way, we can beat anybody," said forward Jaromir Jagr, who moved into a tie for fourth with Ron Francis on the NHL's all-time point list with 1,798. "But it's not over yet. We knew it before this game. We have to win our games and hope for a miracle."
You can follow Jameson Olive on Twitter @JamesonCoop or email him at JamesonOlive@gmail.com.
