With team slumping, veteran wonders if the Panthers know what it takes to make playoffs
Brett Connolly has learned to love this time of year.
For years before he joined the Florida Panthers in the offseason, the winger spent the final months of the season in the throes of thrilling postseason pushes.
He reached the Stanley Cup playoffs in each of the three years he spent with the Washington Capitals and even won the whole thing in 2018. His presence and his experience are part of why he was so appealing for the Panthers, who have reached the playoffs just five times in their 27 seasons.
He’s a unique case in Florida’s dressing room. Only a handful of Panthers are left from the last time they reached the playoffs in 2017. More than a third of the roster has never been to the postseason at all. It was fair for a reporter to ask Connolly after a 6-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday whether he thought some of the less experienced players on the team know what it takes to make a final playoff push.
“Obviously not if they haven’t been through it,” said Connolly, punctuating his response with a quizzical face as if was the answer was obvious. “They need to experience that to go through it, that’s obvious, but the guys that have gone through it know that it’s a ton of fun and it’s the best time of the year and we’ve just got to keep pushing.”
February hasn’t felt like the best time of the year for Florida (30-21-6) so far.
Since the an extended layoff following the All-Star break ended Feb. 1, the Panthers have dropped 6 of 8 and fell five points behind the Flyers in the Eastern Conference Wild Card race with the blowout loss Thursday in Sunrise.
Florida hasn’t won a home game all month, which makes Saturday crucial. Trailing the Toronto Maple Leafs by two points for the third and final playoff spot in the Atlantic Division, the Panthers face the Edmonton Oilers at 4 p.m. at the BB&T Center before they head back out on a five-game road trip.
At some point, Florida will have to bust out of its half-month slump if it wants to chase down the Maple Leafs.
“Obviously there’s been disappointment in this franchise for a while and guys that have been here for a while are not ready to accept that,” Connolly said. “We’ve just got to come together and keep pushing, and play better than we have.”
The Panthers tried to move forward in the immediate aftermath of their second loss to Philadelphia in four days.
For about 10 minutes after the final buzzer sounded, Florida gathered for a players-only meeting in its locker room. A six-game winning streak heading into the NHL All-Star Game was a distant memory for the Panthers and they had to figure out how to recapture the success from their best stretch of the year, starting against the Oilers (30-21-6) this weekend.
“Coaches didn’t come in. It’s just the players talking,” Connolly said. “We believe in each other. It’s just a matter of getting to that final goal and getting down to that last five games in a position that we can solidify a playoff spot, and be happy with the way we are playing. Those guys need to get in and everybody needs to get a taste of that here. It’s obviously been a while. Hopefully we get the last 25 games.”
While superstar goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was bad enough Thursday to warrant coach Joel Quenneville yanking him after just one period, Florida’s problems run deeper. The Panthers’ top forward line of Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov and Evgenii Dadonov have combined for just three goals, four assists and a plus-minus of negative-6 since the break with Barkov missing three games. After Florida’s morning skate Thursday, Quenneville pulled the three aside and told them they needed to be better for the Panthers to get back on track.
They finally showed a glimmer of life in the third period Thursday as Huberdeau and Barkov each scored goals in the first five minutes of the frame to cut the Flyers’ four-goal lead to two.
It was far too little far too late for a team built around its offense, even if it was a glimmer — a reminder — of what Florida can be at its best.
“Just forget about these bad games and obviously tomorrow work hard on the practice and then get ready for Saturday,” Barkov said Thursday. “Work harder in the game, start on time and just play the right way.”
