{"id":443435,"date":"2026-02-03T15:22:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/443435\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T15:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T15:22:11","slug":"defending-champion-florida-panthers-drop-to-bottom-of-atlantic-division-as-losses-continue-to-pile-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/443435\/","title":{"rendered":"Defending-champion Florida Panthers drop to bottom of Atlantic Division as losses continue to pile up"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Florida Panthers<\/a> let a two-goal lead slip away in a 5-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres<\/a> on Monday. That marked Florida\u2019s fourth loss in a row and dropped the team to last place in the Atlantic Division.<\/p>\n

Star winger Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> pointed to a loss of identity as the main issue in the defeat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just got away from our game, we didn\u2019t play that [way] the whole game and then it got away from us,\u201d Tkachuk said to reporters after the loss. \u201cHonestly, they\u2019re way more skilled than us, that team, from an individual standpoint [in terms of] skill, they have us by a lot. We have a certain style, and if we play it, we\u2019re successful, but we just have not played it enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers now sit nine points out of a playoff spot as their division rivals all seem to have gotten hot at the same time – only Florida and the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> have a losing record of their past 10 games, and the top six teams in the Atlantic Division are a combined 38-12-10 over their past 10 games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not running anybody out of the arena [when we\u2019re up] 2-0,\u201d head coach Paul Maurice said of the failure to maintain the lead against Buffalo on Monday. \u201cWe\u2019re just not in a position to do that. We have to stay in the fight as long as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n

Star forward Sam Bennett<\/a> departed Monday\u2019s game with an upper-body injury to add more salt to the wound in a season that is quickly going south for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we got miles on some guys,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cYou\u2019re missing your centre, and that\u2019s a problem with a couple of [defencemen] out … They\u2019re grinding, they\u2019re battling as hard as they can.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers have struggled to put a consistent lineup on the ice as the team has dealt with injuries to key contributors throughout the campaign.<\/p>\n

Star centre and team captain Aleksander Barkov<\/a> has missed the entire season thus far and centre Anton Lundell<\/a> has been out since suffering an upper-body injury last week. Veteran centre Tomas Nosek<\/a> has also yet to play in 2025-26 after having an off-season knee procedure, and Tkachuk has played in just eight games after missing the first three months of the season recovering from off-season surgery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems like somebody\u2019s getting injured every night,\u201d Tkachuk said after the game to reporters. \u201cThat\u2019s never ideal when guys go out with an injury that early, but I thought some guys stepped up.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the guys in right now, I\u2019m seeing them just work their absolute ass off and grind and play through stuff so that they can stay in and play, so it\u2019s been wild, but we are in trouble right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Things are not getting any easier for the Panthers as they play a back-to-back against the Boston Bruins<\/a> and Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a> on Thursday and Friday before the beginning of the Olympic break. Those two teams have lost a combined two games in regulation over the past three weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have a lot of options [moving forward] when things are the way they are, you just have to put your character out there and your heart,\u201d said Maurice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in one right now, and if we don\u2019t try to simplify [our game], this season\u2019s going to get away from us,\u201d Tkachuk added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Florida Panthers let a two-goal lead slip away in a 5-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443436,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[4759,62,57,33779,5141,5,4,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-443435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-panthers","11":"tag-florida-panthers-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-13","12":"tag-floridapanthers","13":"tag-hockey","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116007386812135256","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}