The Florida Panthers are playoff bound. All it took was changing (almost) everything.
It was the sort of sequence the Florida Panthers have gotten used to seeing in the last eight years: Aleksander Barkov was in the middle of the ice and Jonathan Huberdeau was split out to his left, and they were going to do all they could to try to get the Panthers into the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Barkov slid a pass to Huberdeau and the All-Star left wing buried another third-period goal in Florida’s come-from-behind, 7-4 win against the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.
Sam Bennett crashed into Huberdeau to celebrate. Keith Yandle slapped his fellow alternate captain in the chest. Barkov sheepishly glided into the celebration, the last one there as the understated superstar often is. They could all feel it: Florida was finally headed back to the playoffs.
“We’ve been through a lot,” Huberdeau said Tuesday. “I’ve been here nine years and it’s just a fun year. When you win, it makes it so much more fun.”
Winning has come far too infrequently for Huberdeau since he was the No. 3 overall pick in the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. He missed the Cup playoffs in each of his first three seasons before the Panthers finally broke through with a trip to the postseason in 2016.
It was a special year for Florida. The Panthers’ 103 points were the most in franchise history and arguably their three best players — Huberdeau, Barkov and defenseman Aaron Ekblad — were all 22 or younger. It looked like the start of a new winning era in South Florida.
Instead, they lost in the first round of the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs, then missed out on the postseason for three straight years. They don’t really count their trip the qualifying round last year in the NHL’s expanded postseason. Tuesday ultimately amounted to a relief for the organization.
“It’s an awesome feeling, something we’ve been waiting for a long time,” winger Frank Vatrano said Tuesday. “We’ve been close many times and it feels good.”
All it took was changing almost everything around the core trio of Huberdeau, Barkov and Ekblad.
The Panthers hired coach Joel Quenneville ahead of last season, hoping the three-time Stanley Cup champion could reshape their culture. When Quenneville didn’t entirely change Florida’s fortunes, the Panthers fired longtime general manager Dale Tallon, hired Bill Zito and let the first-time general manager reshape the entire supporting to cast.
He traded for right wing Patric Hornqvist in his first month on the job. He let wingers Evgenii Dadonov and Mike Hoffman walk in free agency, and replaced them with left wings Carter Verhaeghe and Anthony Duclair — cheaper, less-coveted free agents, who have outperformed their predecessors.
At the trade deadline, Zito kept tinkering and traded for Bennett, who has 10 points in seven games playing next to Huberdeau after scoring just 12 in 38 with the Calgary Flames to start the season.
“It looks like there’s something there,” Quenneville said Tuesday. “That chemistry looks like it’s been very noticeable.”
Zito’s touch was felt from the preseason.
Huberdeau, 27, is the longest tenured member of the organization and the Panthers still felt unfamiliar when he reported to training camp in January.
Nine of the 20 players in Florida’s opening-day lineup didn’t play for the Panthers in the regular season last year.
Duclair, Verhaeghe, Hornqvist, left wing Ryan Lomberg, centers Alex Wennberg and Eetu Luostarinen, and defensemen Radko Gudas and Gustav Forsling were all new to the organization entirely. None had All-Star reputations, but they fit the identity Zito envisioned Quenneville instilling.
“It was really different, but I think that the guys we brought kind of fit. Everybody fit with each other and I think everybody liked each other,” Huberdeau said. “You could just tell in training camp. We were just having fun and ready to go, and obviously you didn’t know what was going to happen in the season, but I think right from the get-go we started playing well and playing the right way.
“That’s our team. That’s our identity. I think we were trying to find our identity of our team and we found it this year. We’re a hard-working team with a lot of skill.”
With five games left in the regular season, it’s the earliest Florida (32-14-5) has clinched a playoff spot since 2000. The Panthers aren’t done playing meaningful games, though.
Florida is locked in a battle for first place in the Central Division with the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning, sitting just two points behind the first-place Hurricanes and one ahead of the third-place Lightning.
Their final push continues Thursday when they open up a two-game series against the Chicago Blackhawks at 8 p.m. in Chicago. After two games against the Blackhawks (22-22-5) at the United Center, Florida closes the season with three in a row in Sunrise.
For the first time in years, the crowd at the BB&T Center will be able to celebrate a playoff team.
“We have a lot of fans that’s been loyal to us and didn’t have much to cheer for,” Huberdeau said. “This year, it’s going to be more fun.
