The Florida Panthers are back in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Thanks to losses by the New York Rangers and Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday, Florida’s magic number shrunk to zero.
This marks the sixth straight year Florida has qualified for the postseason, a franchise record that just keeps growing.
The playoffs are set to begin in two weeks, but we’re still far from finding out what the matchups are going to be.
As it stands, Florida is in third place in the Atlantic Division.
If the playoffs started tomorrow, the Panthers would face their cross-state rivals, the Tampa Bay Lightning, for the fourth time in five postseasons.
There are still paths to Florida going up against Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal in the first round, so we’ll see how things shake out over the next six games.
Florida also has several players who are currently out of the lineup, but expected back either before or during the playoffs.
Forward Matthew Tkachuk has been out since the 4 Nations Face-Off in February but he’s been seen on the ice recently and barring any setbacks, the team is hopeful his recovery will land him back in the lineup during the first round.
Sasha Barkov, Dmitry Kulikov and Nico Sturm are all currently injured but both should be back before the postseason arrives, and suspended defenseman Aaron Ekbald will be eligible to return for Game 3 of the opening round.
There is still much to learn over the next couple weeks, but take a breath, Panthers fans.
The days of sitting at home and watching other teams fight for the Stanley Cup are long gone.
See you in the playoffs.
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