The Panthers are just over halfway through their season, and it’s been a mixed bag of results for the two-time defending Cup Champions. Florida expected to go into the season down Matthew Tkachuk, not ideal, but that’s a survivable loss to the lineup. When I did my preview for the season, I noted that probably the only thing that could take out the Panthers would be injuries. That’s been the big story of the season: the Cats have been riddled with long-term injuries and lead the league in man-games lost. With how the Eastern Conference has been this season, there’s little room for error. They’re one good week or one bad week away from being in the playoffs or last in the conference. It can feel frustrating when looking at the West in comparison, where their point total would put them into a playoff spot with some forgiveness. There’s only 1 team in the East that has fewer than 20 wins, compared to the West having 6 teams under 20 wins. Florida’s playoff hopes aren’t over, but they’re facing a steep uphill climb to get there.
While Tkachuk was the expected loss to the lineup, the rest of the missing players weren’t. The biggest blow was losing team captain Sasha Barkov on day 1 of the vets joining training camp. While there’s been good news on his rehab, including that he’s been able to start skating in December, the Cats aren’t likely to see him back in the lineup until the end of the regular season, if not until sometime in the playoffs, should they make it there. One thing to keep an eye on is if they elect to put Barkov on season-ending LTIR and completely free up his $10 million from the cap hit. Nosek’s injury status was a surprise, as all that’s been said about it is that he sustained an injury while training before training camp during Florida’s media day. We know it’s a knee injury since he’s been seen wearing a knee brace at different team events. The Panthers have said he’s on a similar timeline to Barkov, so we can infer it’s a pretty serious knee injury. Tkachuk recently began skating with the Panthers again and taking part in practice. They’re on a six-game road trip at the moment, which could see Matthew return to the lineup at some point.
All those took place before the season even started, but the hockey gods haven’t been kind to the Cats in season either. Kulikov went down with an upper-body injury within the first five games, and that injury needed surgery. He’s expected back sometime in March. Gadjovich is out with an upper-body injury he sustained during an early-season match against Vegas; he’s also not expected back until after the Olympic break. Cole Schwindt was brought in to help fill in the gaps in the lineup, but his collision with Bobrovsky resulted in a broken arm and 2-3 months of missed time. Luostarinen has had the shortest injury this season as he only missed 8 games due to a BBQ accident with his grill. He’s back in the lineup and has stabilized the top six. Seth Jones is currently out week to week after taking a puck to the clavicle area during the Winter Classic. His status for the Olympics is up in the air, but there’s still time for him to get healthy so he can go. And Marchand has some sort of minor injury that got aggravated during the game against the Leafs, so he’s missed the last two games.
All in all, there have been so many injuries to starting players and players brought in to fill out the lineup that fans have jokingly started calling the team the Florida Checkers. Vilmanis recently made his NHL debut against Ottawa this past Saturday, and he’ll be heading over to Italy to join Uvis Balinskis on Team Latvia. Studnicka has had a stint in the lineup as well. Bjornfot was called up for the road trip just in case someone else gets injured. The Cats have spent pretty much all season rolling out a lineup that looked like the one they had for the end of the regular season last year, when they were deliberately holding guys out to give them rest after they’d clinched a playoff spot. And it’s no disrespect to the Charlotte Checkers, the nickname is simply meant to poke fun at the fact that Florida can’t ice a full NHL lineup. At no point this season has the full championship-winning lineup from last season’s playoffs played a game together. It’s hard to judge where the team is at when it looks nothing like what it could’ve been.
Florida’s living or dying by its top six at the moment. While there have been a couple of depth goals here and there, it hasn’t been consistent. Mackie Samoskevich looks as snakebitten as Cater Verhaeghe did last year, but his points stat line looks identical to Luostarinen’s (4G, 14A), so he is contributing offensively, it’s just more setting up other guys. A. J. Greer is putting together a career season, having already set a new career high in goals at 7. Marchand’s been the biggest bright spot in the offense, where he’s tied with Reinhart to lead the team in goals at 23. Brad also leads the team in assists with 23, although Reinhart isn’t far behind him at 21. Lundell’s quietly putting together a good season with the potential to be a career season while serving as the Cats’ 1C. Verhaeghe has found his groove again after a frustrating regular season last year; he’s got 13G, 18A in 43 games, and is back into his average range for shooting percentage. Bennett has evolved his game this year and could put up similar numbers to his career season from last year. The biggest change is that Sam has now added to the penalty kill, where he’s been surprisingly good for the Panthers.
Florida prides itself on its defense, and that’s been one of its biggest struggles this year, which isn’t surprising given how many new players have been in and out of the lineup. The goaltending has been up and down, with Bobrovsky having a bit of a rough season. Although how much of that is completely on him is hard to say with the team in front of him. He’s certainly had some bad games, but he’s also been the reason they’ve been in some of the games and won. Tarasov has been more consistent, but hasn’t always gotten the goal support from the team in front of him to get the wins he deserves.
Looking to the Olympic break, I can’t say I’m overly excited for it. I’m happy for the players who get to go and represent their home countries. But it fills me with a certain sense of dread knowing that there are 10 players going and more opportunities for injuries to occur. Florida could have had as many as 12 go, 13 if Barkov didn’t get injured. On top of the potential for injuries, that’s even more games on Florida’s heavy hitters, who have had short summers the last three seasons and have played roughly 400 games or more in that stretch. No one has played more hockey than the Florida Panthers in the last three years, and while the rewards have been magnificent, the wear and tear, I think, is showing. Hopefully, the Olympians come back healthy and with great memories and experiences to share, perhaps, some hardware as well.
Should the Panthers make the playoffs with a roster that’s healthier and more similar to last year’s, I do believe that a three-peat is still in the cards for them. But, right now, the question is whether they’ll even get the chance. They’re going to have to fight and claw for every point, every win, and every opportunity to make the postseason.
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