Who shoved South Florida into the WABAC (way-back) machine? What December is this, 1996? The Marlins making it rain on free agents, the Heat and Knicks ready to glare at each other again…

And, up there, near the roof of the NHL standings, sit the Panthers, seven points up on second-place Washington in the Southeast Division after outlasting the Capitals 5-4 Monday night at BankAtlantic Center.

They understand that “oh, yeah, that’s real” look you give them, as if someone tried to pay them with a $2 bill. They know they have to work toward eroding your doubt of their authenticity.

“There was a great little buzz in the stands tonight,” Panthers coach Kevin Dineen said.

This kind of start preceded the Panthers’ three playoff appearances: 25-8-2 in 1995-96, 17-4-6 in 1996-97, 19-8-2-2 in 1999-2000, the last time they hit December above .500. Usually, the holiday season finds the Panthers shopping for straws at which to grasp from eight to 10 points out of the last playoff spot.

“We’re honestly not focusing on how it’s feeling,” said Panthers center Stephen Weiss, the longest-suffering player in franchise history. “You’re just in the moment. Just playing the game, trying to get points and keep it going. Certainly, it’s a different feeling coming to the rink, not feeling like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders, trying to get back into the race.”

Are we sure Bill Clinton didn’t just win a second term? Defenseman Ed Jovanovski’s first two NHL seasons were the Panthers’ first two playoff teams, the ones that rolled four lines, played sound defense, used their speed to create a plethora of scoring chances of which they would convert enough to win.

“We’ve got a lot more skill on this team,” Jovanovski said. “But the will to beat the guy next to you is there, almost like we had 15 years ago. As a team, we can’t deviate from hard work or we’ll get beat.”

Sounds a lot like the back-in-the-day Panthers. So does this answer when right wing Jack Skille was asked the defining characteristic of this team.

“Confidence. Confidence,” Skille answered. “It’s not a cockiness, it’s not an arrogance. It’s a confidence that we’re going to go out there and play our hardest. And when we do that, we should have our best shot at winning games. Last year, you could see it a little bit, lack of confidence creeping in. At the end of the year, we went on an 11-game losing streak. It was harder to show up at the rink every day.

“Now, everyone is excited to work every day, to come to the rink. It’s a fun atmosphere. Like anybody in any job, when you have a fun work environment, it gives you a lot of confidence about yourself.”

That’s just the way it used to be with a group of guys thrown together out of the expansion draft and a few trades. These Panthers got thrown together with a free agency spending spree and a few trades. So much so that Washington goalie Tomas Vokoun, the No. 1 goalie the past four seasons, said there’s “only five guys I played with” still on the Panthers.

“Although we have a lot of new guys, it was done with a purpose, not just random pieces hoping it was going to work,” Weiss said. “There was thought put into it, a plan in mind to bring in character people who wanted to turn it around.”

This is what’s cool — they’re not just winning. They’re doing so with style. They’re scoring goals on plays you see in the defenseless NHL All-Star Game, on shots you see during mess-around time at the end of practice.

Take the eventual game-winner Monday. From the right circle in the Washington zone, Tomas Fleischman sliced to his left, barely corralling and herding the puck along ahead of him, drawing several Washington bodies toward him. Once Fleischmann found himself under observation, he fed Weiss back in the right circle through some lazy Caps backchecking starring Alexander Ovechkin. Open net.

It’s hard to remember, especially for the casual fan, the esteem in which scouts held Weiss going into the 2001 NHL Draft, held in Sunrise. Most had him right around where the Panthers took him, fourth overall. Most of his career, it seemed the Panthers kept putting Weiss into a suit sized a line too big. Maybe it wasn’t Weiss because with Fleischmann and Kris Versteeg, he looks like a first-line center and is scoring like one, too: all three members of the line rank among the NHL’s top 20 scorers.

“The last time I can remember feeling that kind of confidence with a line or a group is back in junior, really,” Weiss said. “Stretches here and there, but nothing like those games that we’ve had this year where we’ve gotten it going pretty good. It’s been fun.”

When’s the last time you remember fun from this franchise?