By TIM REYNOLDS<\/p>\n
SUNRISE \u2014 Maybe the end for the Florida Panthers came when Brad Marchand was shut down for the season last month. Or maybe it was when Seth Jones broke his collarbone and wound up missing 26 games. Or, maybe it was 20 minutes into training camp, when captain Aleksander Barkov blew out his knee.<\/p>\n
Nobody knows when the season was officially doomed.<\/p>\n
Doesn\u2019t matter now. The Panthers are out.<\/p>\n
Games remain, but the Panthers were mathematically eliminated from playoff contention on Saturday with a 9-4 loss in Pittsburgh. For the first time since 2022, a team other than Florida will represent the Eastern Conference in the Stanley Cup Final and for the first time since 2023, a team other than the Panthers will be the one hoisting the greatest chalice in sports.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve known this was coming for a while. It\u2019s just official now.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, no one\u2019s happy about the situation,\u201d Panthers forward Sam Bennett said. \u201cBut it\u2019s about really just sticking together as a team and going through this as a team. We\u2019re all sticking together. It\u2019s not fun sometimes. But we\u2019re just trying to make the best of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time the regular season ends in a couple of weeks, the Panthers will have gone well past the 500 man-games-missed mark this season because of injury. Barkov, the captain who Panthers coach Paul Maurice believes is the best player in the world, missed the entire year and a chance to captain Finland at the Milan Cortina Olympics as well.<\/p>\n
Jonah Gadjovich will wind up missing 72 games with an upper-body injury. Tomas Nosek missed 60 games with a knee injury. Dmitry Kulikov is nearing 60 games missed, most with a shoulder injury and now a badly broken nose. Matthew Tkachuk missed 47 games while recovering from surgery to repair a sports hernia and torn adductor.<\/p>\n
Cole Schwindt missed more than half the season with a pair of injuries. Marchand will miss 29 games and Jones missed 26. Niko Mikkola, Evan Rodrigues, Sam Reinhart, Uvis Balinskis and Anton Lundell were all shut down for the season at least a couple of weeks ago. Aaron Ekblad broke a finger this week and he won\u2019t play until next season.<\/p>\n
And it was no laughing matter at the time, but Eetu Luostarinen missed nine games \u2014 after getting burned while barbecuing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d say we had some adversity,\u201d Maurice said.<\/p>\n
Add it all up, and Florida is likely going to finish the season with no more than eight players who dressed in last year\u2019s Cup-clinching win against Edmonton on the ice. The Panthers bent, bent, bent all season, and finally broke.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve been true to it,\u201d Maurice said, speaking of the team\u2019s culture. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve had some tough nights, but the bench has been right and they\u2019re cheering for each other. They\u2019re engaged in the game. They\u2019re talking about the game. It\u2019s just, you\u2019re just not going to be able to produce, not going to be able to execute a whole bunch of things that you normally expect to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Put simply, the Panthers might just need a break.<\/p>\n
They were in 67 playoff games over the last three seasons, the most in the NHL \u2014 and unbelievably, more than 17 other franchises played in that span combined. They\u2019ve logged tons of miles, taken tons of hits and done it all with very short offseasons because their Cup runs kept stretching into June while non-playoff teams are done in April.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we all know \u2026 how good this hockey team is,\u201d Bennett said. \u201cWe know how good we\u2019re going to be when we have everyone healthy and everyone back. So, there\u2019s obviously a ton of excitement, I think, in anticipation for next year.\u201d<\/p>\n
With good reason. Hockey operations president and general manager Bill Zito has had the vast majority of the core under contract for some time: Barkov, Tkachuk, Reinhart, Bennett, Marchand, Carter Verhaeghe, Jones, Ekblad, Gustav Forsling, Lundell, Rodrigues, Mikkola, Kulikov, Balinskis, Reinhardt and Jesper Boqvist are among those who are signed. The biggest question is at goalie, where Sergei Bobrovsky will be a free agent, but one who is believed to want to remain with the Panthers.<\/p>\n
All that talk can wait, at least for a couple more weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just focused on this year,\u201d Jones said after the loss Saturday.<\/p>\n
Things, if the Panthers are lucky, should look very different next season. Or put another way, things could look like how they were in June 2024 and June 2025, when Florida won the Cup. The celebrations started like this: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman would say a few words, then hand the Cup to Barkov, who would skate away and hoist.<\/p>\n
The Panthers felt like that could have happened again this season. For about 20 minutes, anyway. It was at the 20-minute mark of the first full-team training camp practice where Barkov blew out the ACL and MCL in his knee.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know right away. Oh, you knew it was bad,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cHe\u2019s a tough one. He doesn\u2019t go down lightly. It was as close to being at a funeral as there can be. The 19th minute, we are humpin\u2019, up and down the ice. And I\u2019m taking it all in thinking, \u2018Oh, we\u2019re right there. These guys are focused, they\u2019re fit, they\u2019re pushing themselves. I\u2019m not even yelling at them anymore.\u2019 And then that happens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next three days were a prolonged funeral service,\u201d Maurice added. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know it was going to be for our season.\u201d<\/p>\n
If the Panthers were in the playoff chase, Barkov might be playing now. If there was a Game 1 of Round 1 sometime in the next couple weeks, the expectation is Barkov would have been ready. And now, the Panthers will pivot to Game 1 of next season.<\/p>\n
They won\u2019t be the defending Cup champions anymore. It might actually rekindle the desire to win it again.<\/p>\n
\u201cBill Zito\u2019s vision for this team has just been so bang on,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cWe have full faith in the vision that he has for the group, and the core is going to be here next year. We\u2019ll all be excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
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