TAMPA – The Florida Panthers are ready to rest up for the climb.

With a 6-1 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena on Thursday, the defending back-to-back Stanley Cup champions are heading into the break with a record of 29-25-3 and sitting eight points out of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Needing to make up some ground, they have 25 games left to make their move.

“We’ve got to start playing playoff hockey now,” forward Mackie Samoskevich said. “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.”

The one benefit of the break will be rest.

Even for the 10 players that are heading overseas for the Winter Olympics, the next three weeks will be far from the grind the Panthers have endured to start this season.

Expected to be healthier than they’ve been at any point this season – knock on wood – both Seth Jones and Jonah Gadjovich are projected to return to action coming out of the break.

That would leave Aleksander Barkov, Tomas Nosek and Dmitry Kulikov as the remaining injured players, with Kulikov expected to be the next to return at some point in March.

The road ahead won’t be easy, but it’ll be nice to have some reinforcements.

“Just get some rest,” head coach Paul Maurice said. “All this team needs is some rest.”

Breaking the ice early in the first period for the Lightning, a tipped shot from Brandon Hagel went off a defender and past Daniil Tarasov to make it 1-0 at 2:08. Doubling Tampa Bay’s lead later, Zemgus Girgensons buried a backhander from the slot to make it 2-0 at 14:08.

Later in the period, the Panthers came up empty on an extended 5-on-3 power play.

Standing tall, Lightning goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy made 19 saves in the first period.

With the Panthers being handed an unsportsmanlike penalty at the end of the first period, the Lightning started the second period with the extra attacker and cashed in right away.

Finding open ice on the power play, Jake Guentzel potted a rebound to make it 3-0 at 1:14.

Carrying over his strong play from the first period, Vasilevskiy added another save to his highlight reel in the second when flashed leather to rob Samoskevich of a goal.

Named the first star of the game, Vasilevskiy finished with 33 saves.

“Big saves for a big man,” Samoskevich said. “He covers a lot of the net. Not much you can really see when you look up. He’s a very good goalie, and definitely tough to play against.”

Netting his first goal of the season, Erik Cernak extended Tampa Bay’s advantage to 4-0 when he gathered the puck behind the net and cashed in on a wrap-around at 17:50.

“The third goal hurt us, and then the fourth goal kind of put the game out of reach a little bit,” Maurice said. “Up until that point, I was really pleased with the way we were playing.”

In the third period, all hell broke loose.

With bad blood boiling over, multiple brawls ensued, including Matthew Tkachuk dropping the gloves with Hagel — who have some history dating back to the 4 Nations Face-Off — and Gustav Forsling taking down J.J. Moser. After the dust had finally settled, 19 different penalties had been handed out, including six misconducts.

Awarded a 5-on-3 power play after the brawls, the Lightning pushed their lead to 5-0 on a goal from Pontus Holmberg at 6:09. Moments before the goal was scored, Tarasov suffered an apparent lower-body injury and had to be helped off the ice, replaced in net by Sergei Bobrovsky.

Spoiling Vasilevskiy’s shutout bid, Samoskevich responded with a power-play goal for the Panthers to cut the deficit to 5-1 at 9:50. But with 4:19 remaining in regulation, Oliver Bjorkstrand picked a corner with a wicked wrist shot to lock in the 6-1 final for the Lightning.

After weathering a storm of adversity, the Panthers are eager to catch their breath.

“It’s huge for us,” Samoskevich said. “Much needed. Some guys will get to go play some more hockey [at the Winter Olympics], which will be good for them and fun to watch. We’ll get some guys back after the break, and then go from there.”

THEY SAID IT

“That’s nine games in 15 days and nine guys out of our lineup. They played hard. I wore those men right out. You look at the minutes Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Gustav Forsling and Niko Mikkola have played here, they gave all they had.” – Paul Maurice on the Panthers facing adversity

“I got the call last night. It was pretty surreal. I couldn’t fall asleep with how excited i was. … It’s a dream come true. I was just think today about all the hard work I put in to get here. I’d like to thank everyone that helped me along the way.” – Mikulas Hovorka on making his NHL debut

CATS STATS

– Jesper Boqvist recorded the 100th point of his NHL career.

– Anton Lundell went 14-for-20 (60%) in the faceoff circle.

– Florida led 14-3 in shot attempts with Luke Kunin on the ice at 5-on-5.

– The Panthers led 20-11 in scoring chances at 5-on-5.

– Sam Reinhart leads the Panthers in goals (27), assists (28) and points (55) at the break.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Now, we rest.

Following the Winter Olympics, the Panthers will return to action with a divisional matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Amerant Bank Arena on Thursday, Feb. 26 at 7 p.m. ET.

For tickets, click HERE.