FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — No team has played more hockey in the past three years.

Very few teams would go without a superstar like Aleksander Barkov for an entire regular season and a top-six star like Matthew Tkachuk for half the season and still ponder a trip to the postseason.

But these are the back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. There is no white flag in these parts.

Still, 24 games into the season, a 12-11-1 record has the Florida Panthers within reach of a playoff spot in the jammed Eastern Conference.

It is not where they want to be post-U.S. Thanksgiving, even if it’s understandable why they’re here.

“The short, generic answer is we’re trying to stay afloat,” Bill Zito, president of hockey operations and general manager of the two-time Cup champs, told The Athletic this weekend. “If you talk to the coaches and the players, there’s a few they’d like to have back, and there’s a few nights they probably wish they would have played better. And I don’t mean superb. I mean just a little bit better. But for the most part, yeah, our guys have been working their tails off.

“It kind of is what it is. We just have to keep battling every single night.”

The Panthers don’t really care where they finish, as long as they get in. That’s the plain reality of it. They’re trying to keep their heads above water long enough to get bodies back and just get enough points to qualify for the playoffs. Home ice? Whatever.

“There’s so many schools of thought on that, right?” Zito said. “There’s the ‘just getting in.’ We made it to the Final as No. 8 seeds (in 2023). We won the Presidents’ Trophy (2022) and didn’t win (lost in second round). So you never really know. That’s why it’s about just getting in.”

Zito referenced John Tortorella, saying the longtime head coach liked starting playoff series on the road.

“Because Games 1 and 2, there’s no distraction — or you minimize the distractions. You’re together as a team. You’re accomplishing what you need to accomplish as a coach.”

A split of the opening two games always feels so much better for the underdog heading home.

“So I always appreciated that mindset, and I actually shared it with Joe Sakic once, and he said, ‘Billy, take it from me, I’ve been on both ends, if there’s a Game 7 you want it at home,’” Zito said. “So I think there’s logic on both sides of it. But our focus is on our next game. Nothing else.”

Imagine the nightmare awaiting a top seed, though, if Florida lands as a wild card come April. Gee, thanks. That scenario could absolutely play out.

On the other hand, the Panthers have to get there. Everyone I talk to around the league believes they probably will, but they’re on the outside looking in after U.S. Thanksgiving, and we all know about those stats.

Key injuries aside, there’s the matter of having played in three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals. It’s hard to put a finger on how much fatigue is at play.

They’ve let 2-0 leads slip away here at home the past two games against the Philadelphia Flyers and Calgary Flames. The goaltending could have been better in those games, but is that also mental fatigue for a team that’s played so much hockey?

“I thought about it a lot in the summertime: How is this going to play out?” Zito said. “Once the season actually started, if you’re around our guys, around the players, the staff, the energy — there’s not a noticeable drop to me. So it’s not something you keep looking at. Say we don’t play well — I’m not immediately thinking that’s, ‘Oh, the fatigue of the playoffs.’ Because we weren’t fatigued yesterday.

“In my mind, it’s less present than I thought it might be, if for no other reason — when you’re around the team, everyone seems to have the same enthusiasm and love of the game. And excited to win and hate to lose.’’

This is the time of the season when teams take stock of where they are and examine their potential needs. With Tkachuk potentially coming back sometime later this month and Barkov for the playoffs, nothing will matter more than that. But the Panthers, among the more aggressive teams in the league under Zito in adding pieces every year, are doing their due diligence, to be sure.

Aleksander Barkov lifts the Stanley Cup in June. (Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

“On the pro level this year, (AGM) Gregory Campbell runs our pro (scouting), and those guys have pretty significant discussions once a week,” Zito said. “And we’re always considering what’s available, what can make us better. All the teams do that. Even when you’re winning more games, you’re always investigating and keeping your finger on the pulse. That doesn’t change.”

It’s no coincidence that Zito mentioned Campbell, who has grown into a front-office force on a loaded staff that also includes the likes of Roberto Luongo, Brett Peterson, Paul Krepelka and Sunny Mehta, among others.

What’s clear is that Campbell’s opinion on players carries a lot of weight with Zito.

That will be important as the Panthers get closer to the March 6 trade deadline.

Around that time, the Panthers will need as much intel as possible from their medical team to ensure Barkov is a playoff option. With the new playoff salary cap in place, his $10 million cap hit can’t be used at the deadline like before, even if he doesn’t play in the regular season. Not if he’s a playoff possibility.

Which is to say, unlike Vegas declaring Alex Pietrangelo out for the entire season and playoffs, which freed up his cap hit, the Panthers have not done that with Barkov.

The tricky part with these new rules is: What if Florida gets told around the trade deadline that it’s 30 or 40 percent that Barkov will be back? Then they can’t spend his cap hit at the deadline? I’m not suggesting that’s what the Panthers will be told on Barkov; it’s just a theoretical example that shows how the new system is not perfect. But it’s what all teams have to adhere to now.

The prognosis for Barkov remains what it’s been, Zito said: seven to nine months from when it was announced in late September.

“I’m not being coy,” Zito said. “Could it be a couple of weeks early? I guess. Could it be a couple of weeks late? I don’t know.”

As for Tkachuk, who has resumed skating on his own, Zito said it remains the hope that he’s back right around Christmas.

One thing’s for sure on that front: They won’t rush him, the GM said. They want him at 100 percent before he’s back, regardless of the standings and how badly they miss him. They want him back for good.

Until then, the Panthers host the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, with points incredibly important as the back-to-back champs try to stay afloat.

They could be the scariest wild-card team in years. But they also have to get there. They need to get going right about now.