{"id":540620,"date":"2026-04-04T17:26:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T17:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/540620\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T17:26:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T17:26:27","slug":"preview-penguins-chase-for-a-playoff-spot-continues-against-injured-panthers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/540620\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW: Penguins\u2019 chase for a playoff spot continues against injured Panthers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This article originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:PGHHockeyNOW.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;PGHHockeyNOW.&quot;}\" class=\"link \">PGHHockeyNOW.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The chase is coming to its conclusion. The <a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/tag\/pittsburgh-penguins\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Pittsburgh Penguins;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Pittsburgh Penguins&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> (38-22-16) are chasing their first playoff spot since 2022, and their magic number is now just eight points. However, they have a weekend war awaiting them as they host the Florida Panthers (37-35-3) for a two game set at PPG Paints Arena.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>The Penguins are solid favorites today according to the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsbook.fanduel.com\/hockey\/nhl\/florida-panthers-@-pittsburgh-penguins-35445146\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:FanDuel odds;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;FanDuel odds&quot;}\" class=\"link \">FanDuel odds<\/a>, going off at -215 on the Moneyline. Florida\u2019s season has been derailed by injuries, and more injuries. The complete <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fanduel.com\/research\/nhl\/player-news\/injuries\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:injury list;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;injury list&quot;}\" class=\"link \">injury list <\/a>is staggering.<\/p>\n<p>The two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida squad is embracing its role as spoilers. After injuries to Sasha Barkov and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.puckpedia.com\/player\/matthew-tkachuk\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Matthew Tkachuk;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Matthew Tkachuk&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Matthew Tkachuk<\/a>, and several others, sidetracked their season, Florida has beaten the Boston Bruins and Ottawa Senators in succession.<\/p>\n<p>Florida doesn\u2019t need wins; they want them for their own satisfaction.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pittsburghhockeynow.com\/pittsburgh-penguins-game-77-magic-number-8-lines-notes-how-to-watch-vs-panthers\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Click here to read more from PGHHockeyNOW.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Click here to read more from PGHHockeyNOW.com.&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Click here to read more from PGHHockeyNOW.com.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Download the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/mobile-apps\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:FREE WPXI News app;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;FREE WPXI News app&quot;}\" class=\"link \">FREE WPXI News app<\/a> for breaking news alerts.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Channel 11 News on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wpxi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Facebook;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Facebook&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Facebook<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WPXI\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Twitter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Twitter&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Twitter<\/a>. | <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpxi.com\/video\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Watch WPXI NOW;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Watch WPXI NOW&quot;}\" class=\"link \">Watch WPXI NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article originally appeared on PGHHockeyNOW. The chase is coming to its conclusion. The Pittsburgh Penguins (38-22-16) are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540621,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5102],"tags":[95,62,57,5141,5,94,4,25,63,100,2171],"class_list":{"0":"post-540620","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-boston-bruins","9":"tag-florida","10":"tag-florida-panthers","11":"tag-floridapanthers","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-matthew-tkachuk","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-ottawa-senators","16":"tag-panthers","17":"tag-pittsburgh-penguins","18":"tag-the-penguins"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116347612995381654","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540620","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=540620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}