The injury-plagued Florida Panthers have officially been eliminated from Stanley Cup Playoff contention after losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins over the Easter weekend.
With the loss, the two-time reigning Stanley Cup champions will not defend their titles.
The loss ends a six-year postseason streak that included back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2024-25.
The real season killer was the injury of Florida captain Aleksander Barkov who went down with a serious knee injury in training camp.
 Aside from Barkov, Florida is without a slew of players including Sam Reinhart, Brad Marchand, Evan Rodrigues, Anton Lundell, Aaron Ekblad, Niko Mikkola, and Dmitry Kulikov due to various issues.
The Cats also were without star left winger Matthew Tkachuk until mid-January after he underwent surgery to treat a sports hernia and a torn adductor.
By then, the Panthers had slipped to seventh in the Atlantic Division and were four points out of the playoff picture.
Florida continues to play spoiler against the Canadiens on the road tomorrow night.