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By Jordan McPherson
February 7, 2026 8:49 AM
There’s a reason it’s so difficult for a team to win three consecutive Stanley Cups. There’s a reason it has been more than four decades since the last team accomplished the feat.
A team needs an elongated string of luck to go along with the immense skill it takes to win that much that often in quick succession.
The Florida Panthers, the most recent team attempting to three-peat, has been learning that the hard way this season — to the point where they very possibly might not make the postseason all together, let alone reach the Stanley Cup Final for a fourth consecutive year (remember, the Panthers lost to Vegas in the Cup Final in 2023 before winning back-to-back titles against Edmonton in 2024 and 2025).
The Panthers enter the NHL’s Olympic break with a 29-25-3 record and having lost five of their past six games. Their 61 points are tied for the third-fewest in the Eastern Conference and are eight shy of the Boston Bruins (32-20-5, 69 points) for the Eastern Conference’s final wild card spot with 25 games left to play when league action resumes at the end of the month.
MoneyPuck gives Florida a 15.2% chance to be one of the East’s eight teams that makes the playoff field and a 1% chance to win the Stanley Cup. The Athletic’s projection model is more favorable, at 30%, but the point remains that it’s still going to be a massive uphill climb for Florida to even get into the postseason.
“When you win two [Stanley Cups], you think you should win every one,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “You start to lose your perspective on how hard it is to do what this team has done. But you also don’t want to be pining for yesterday. You want to think about what it is that we’re dealing with right now. How can we handle adjustments that we can make to give ourselves a chance?”
Added Panthers forward Mackie Samoskevich: “We’ve got to start playing playoff hockey now. That’s a good thing for us. If we want to get to where we want to go, we’re going to have to play that game. It’s going to be a challenge, but I think we can do it.”
They certainly have the talent to do so — when that talent is healthy. But that has been one of the main problems with this Florida team: It hasn’t been healthy.
Injuries have ravaged the roster all season, a potential after effect of all the extra hockey played (Florida played 68 postseason games the past three years, nearly an entire extra season just of playoff hockey in that span). Captain and top-line center Aleksander Barkov hasn’t played all season because he needed surgery to repair the ACL and MCL in his right knee after an injury in his first practice of training camp. Florida hopes he could make a return for the playoffs should they qualify.
Star winger Matthew Tkachuk missed the first 45 games because of offseason surgery to repair a torn adductor muscle and sports hernia sustained last February in the 4 Nations Face-Off and ultimately played through during Florida’s run to its second championship, averaging a point per game in the postseason despite the injuries.
Fourth-line center Tomas Nosek hasn’t played a game because of an offseason knee injury. Fellow fourth-line forward Jonah Gadjovich has played in just 10 games and none since Oct. 25. Veteran defenseman Dmitry Kulikov injured his shoulder two games into the season and fellow defenseman Seth Jones, who was named to the United States’ Olympic roster in large part because of his superb play since joining the Panthers last March, hasn’t played since Jan. 2. Veteran forward Brad Marchand, who has been one of Florida’s top point producers amid all the injuries, has missed 10 of Florida’s past 15 games.
“Just some rest, that’s all this team needs,’’ Maurice said. “Just some rest.”
They players who need it are getting it. These three weeks should benefit the Panthers, even with 10 of their players in Milan for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The Panthers’ hope is that Jones and Gajodivch will both be back by the time they resume play Feb. 26 against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kulikov and Nosek shouldn’t be too far behind.
“The last number of years has been tough on this team,” Marchand said. “Played a lot of hockey, a lot of injuries. When we get back, we’re gonna have pretty much everybody back, so it’ll be nice.”
But will it be too little too late? What Florida did to stay in the playoff hunt as long as it did with everything it’s roster has dealt with is admirable. Several players — centers Anton Lundell and Sam Bennett, defenseman Niko Mikkola — have elevated their game as they’ve taken on expanded roles. Several more — center Cole Schwindt, winger Sandis Vilmanis and defenseman Uvis Balinskis among them — took advantage of new opportunities and carved out roles that might not have previously been available to them.
The goal was to stay afloat until the roster had a chance to regularly look as close to its most complete form as possible.
That hasn’t truly come. And while it might after the break, it will take a near-perfect finish to sneak into the playoffs.
“We know how big this hill is,” Maurice said.
If they make it, great. The Panthers have shown that all it needs is a chance to compete to make something happen.
If they don’t? Maurice will take this season as a learning experience for the years to come.
“I would say that in everything that’s happened here over the last four years, there’s something to be gleaned out of your adversity,” Maurice said. “There’s an important opportunity. So you just want to stay aware of it and stay out of the emotional part and keep your eyes open for what is it we can take out of this that we get to keep that’s going to make us better? Is it? Maybe it doesn’t make us better in the next month. Maybe you’ve just got to pay for it. Maybe you’ve just got to go through it. But if you can keep your eyes open, there’s something that you can use that’ll make you a better hockey team.”