As Panthers return from break healthy, the next month will be their most important test
The Florida Panthers have emerged from their five-day Christmas break well rested, arguably as healthy as they have been all season and in desperate need of a run of success that has eluded them all season if they want to remain in contention for a spot in the Stanley Cup playoff field.
Their upcoming schedule, however, isn’t doing them any favors.
Starting with Thursday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens, the Panthers will play 15 games during the next 27 days. Ten of those 15 games will be on the road. Nine of those 15 games are against teams currently in the playoff field. They play three sets of back-to-backs in that stretch and no more than two games in a row at home at any given point during the four weeks.
“We look at this month,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said, “as a place for us to really define our team.”
Florida will need a solid effort in this upcoming tough stretch to keep its playoff hopes alive. The Panthers enter Thursday with a 15-16-4 record. They are nine points behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for third place in the Atlantic Division — and the Lightning for good measure has played two fewer games than Florida — and nine points behind the New York Islanders for the Eastern Conference’s second wild card spot.
The team understands the situation and the ground it needs to pick up during the second half of the season. They know the value each game brings.
“Desperation is the biggest thing,” said All-Star winger Matthew Tkachuk, who leads the Panthers with 40 points (15 goals, 25 assists). “We’re getting into a lot of these games coming up against teams that are right next to us in the standings, teams that are above us that we have to chase down. Just very, very important games coming up.”
On the bright side, the Panthers are finally back to near full strength.
Captain and star center Aleksander Barkov returns after missing the past three games with a lower-body injury and missing seven games in a 10-game stretch before that with an illness.
So, too, does defenseman Radko Gudas, who msised the past 10 games with a concussion.
And star defenseman Aaron Ekblad will also draw into the lineup after leaving the first period of Florida’s 5-1 loss to the New York Islanders with an upper-body injury.
“The trainer came in and said nothing to report this morning. I haven’t heard that in two and a half months,” Maurice said after the team’s optional morning skate Thursday.
The focus now shifts to execution and production. A winning streak during this stretch would be ideal. Florida has yet to string together more than two consecutive wins at any point this season.
“We’ve talked the whole season about key things we need to do,” Barkov said. “We just need to bring it [against Montreal] and start from there. We have done some good things over the year, but we haven’t gotten enough wins. We have to start playing smarter and faster, doing the right things all over again.”
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