Florida Panthers close lost season with dominant win over Detroit Red Wings
For a third consecutive season, the Florida Panthers capped their campaign with a win on home ice.
The only difference between this season and the previous two: The Panthers weren’t hoisting the Stanley Cup on Wednesday as they left Amerant Bank Arena.
Instead, an injury-filled, emotionally draining trudge of a 2025-26 campaign ended with a dominating 8-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings in both teams’ regular-season finales.
It was tied for the most goals the Panthers scored in a game this season.
“It’s always nice winning the last game of the year,” star winger Matthew Tkachuk said. “But you just wish it’s in June.”
Instead, Florida finished the season 40-38-4 and won its final three games despite being a shell of its usual self. A top-10 pick potentially looms for the Panthers depending on how the rest of the NHL’s regular season and the draft lottery pans out.
There will be no playoffs. No chance for a three-peat.
But, considering all this team went through over the course of the season, no regrets with how they handled things.
The Panthers were formally eliminated from playoff contention on April 4, but they knew inside that they weren’t going to the postseason much earlier than that.
But they played their style of hockey through and through, even when the state of the roster and the state of their season dictated it would have been easy to give up.
That doesn’t mean it’s been easy to play that way.
“The closer it’s gotten to the playoffs, it’s gotten harder,” Tkachuk said, “just because you’re missing out on the best time of year to play.”
The team took hit after hit, injuries derailing their roster regularly with almost no reprieve across the six-month schedule.
All told, Florida played its final game of the season with 14 regulars sidelined by injuries. They had zero of their regular defensemen suited up.
Captain, top-line center and three-time Selke Trophy winner Aleksander Barkov never played a game this season after tearing the ACL and MCL in his right knee less than an hour into his first training camp practice.
Tkachuk missed the first 47 games recovering from offseason surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and sports hernia.
Tomas Nosek missed 61 games recovering from offseason knee surgery — and then the finale when he broke his fibula on Monday.
Brad Marchand missed nine games in a 13-game stretch and then the final 19 games with a lingering lower-body injury. Sam Reinhart missed the final 17 games with a foot injury. Anton Lundell missed the final 14 games with injuries to his ribs.
Defensemen Dmitry Kulikov (shoulder, then broken nose, then broken finger), Seth Jones (broken collarbone, then broken foot), Aaron Ekblad (broken finger), Niko Mikkola (left knee) and Uvis Balinskis (fractured foot) all finished the season on the shelf. Gustav Forsling didn’t play in the finale either. Forwards Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe sat out the final few games as well.
“We’re not invincible,” Tkachuk said. “We’ve dealt with some crazy things this year.”
And yet the Panthers laid it all out on the ice all season, playing with the same intensity as the past three years even if the names on the backs of the jerseys weren’t the ones Panthers fans were normally accustomed to seeing by season’s end.
Wednesday was just the final shining example.
Hinostroza, a trade acquisition made to ensure Florida had enough depth down the stretch to augment their roster amid all the injuries, opened scoring 4:57 into regulation on a wide-angled shot.
Florida then scored four goals in a span of 7:04 in the second period to blow the game open.
Luke Kunin made it 2-0 at 5:37 in the second frame on feeds from Tkachuk and Marek Alscher.
A.J. Greer put a bow on his career year — in a contract year, no less — with a power-play goal at 8:56 of the second period. Greer set career highs in goals (17), assists (15) and points (32) while moving from a four-line winger role to consistently playing in the top-nine this season.
Defenseman Mike Benning, one of five rookie blueliners on the ice for the Panthers this season, then scored his first two career goals after making a strong impression on the Panthers through his 18-game stint with the club to close out the season. That pushed Florida’s lead to 5-0.
Justin Faulk broke up Florida’s shutout with 3:48 left in the second period, but Panthers goaltender Daniil Tarasov put together a third consecutive strong effort in net to close out the season.
Tarasov overall gave up just five goals on 61 shots in those wins over the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers and Red Wings.
Cole Schwindt and Cole Reinhardt then scored 41 seconds apart midway through the third to push Florida’s lead to 7-1.
Kunin capped scoring with 1:48 left.
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 9:24 PM.
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