The Florida Panthers Have Had an Up and Down Season so far but Have Been Confidently Chasing the Playoffs. The Team's Recent Losses Are Going to be a Setback in the Panthers' Playoff Plans.
The Florida Panthers have certainly had an unexpectedly rocky season after the franchise-setting 103-point season that the team had a year ago.
Losing Jonathan Huberdeau before the year even began, the seemingly out-of-the-blue firing of head coach Gerard Gallant, the resulting promotion of GM Tom Rowe to interim coach, and the slew of injuries to important players like Aleksander Barkov have resulted in a Panthers season filled with twists and turns and, somehow, playoff hopes.
Cats Are Still On the Hunt
The Florida Panthers have lucked out thus far, staying in the playoff hunt in the Atlantic Division thanks to the weak play of the team's divisional opponents. The Atlantic-leading Montreal Canadiens have just 84 points on the season. To put it in perspective, the Metropolitan's Washington Capitals lead the division with 95 and have played two less games than the Habs.
Sitting at 69 points, the Panthers aren't mathematically out of the hunt and, until the end of February, started to look like a team that could make a run into the playoffs. The Panthers got back to even strength in early February with the return of Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov, both of whom sparked a run that saw the team sweep a five-game road trip for the first time in franchise history.
The offense was playing better, the goaltending from both Roberto Luongo and James Reimer was solid, and the entire team looked rejuvenated after Huberdeau and Barkov's return.
Florida Panthers Recent Struggles
However, since February 20, the Florida Panthers have not looked like a playoff team even with a healthy roster. The Panthers have lost six of the last seven games with the most recent being a bad 5-2 home loss to the New York Rangers.
The offense has cooled off, scoring just 13 total goals over the last seven games. Meanwhile, the team must fully rely on the goaltending of James Reimer, with Luongo out due to an aggravated lower-body injury. While Reimer has looked good at times this season, he has lost his last five starts, giving up an average of 2.6 goals per game.
Huberdeau has looked like the Huberdeau of old through all of this — posting five goals and seven assists in his 14 games this season — but Barkov has been in a slump. He doesn't have a single goal outside of a shootout in his last five games.
It remains to be seen how the trade deadline acquisition of Thomas Vanek will pan out but it hasn't looked great so far. Vanek scored his first Panthers goal against the Rangers, but hasn't done much outside of that. His Corsi For is a paltry 46.3% and he hasn't quite figured out his role on the second line with Vincent Trocheck and Jonathan Marchessault.
In such a weak division, the Florida Panthers certainly aren't out of the playoff race yet. The team sits just five points out of third place and four points out of the second Wild Card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Panthers could turn it around during these last 17 games and squeak into the playoffs.
Too many more losses though and it's not going to happen for Florida. The Panthers have to win and win now.
More from Puck Prose
This article originally appeared on 
