Florida Panthers: Recent Results Were Needed at the Start of the Season

The Florida Panthers have finally got the ball rolling with four wins in their last five outings. However, they could’ve used this play at the start of the season.

I’m not going to lie, these last five games have been fun to watch, even if they are meaningless at this point.

In general, the Florida Panthers have played a nice brand of hockey, led by their stars in Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov. Of course, we also can’t forget the solid contributions coming from youngster Sam Montembeault in goal.

Now just imagine for a minute, if the Panthers started this way from the very start of the season, we might actually be talking about playoff hockey.

After all, playoffs were unquestionably the main objective heading into this year, but much like last season, the Panthers are chasing meaningless wins to miss out on their goal by a few points – all while lowering their draft lottery odds in the process.

Sound familiar? Now, HC Bob Boughner is saying that this isn’t over and the Panthers can, in fact, make a miracle push for the playoffs.

Mathematically speaking, he isn’t wrong, and it’s not *technically* over until Florida’s name is crossed off from contention.

But how many more losses until he and others start to realize that this thing is over and the Panthers are better off experimenting until the very end?

To me, he’s selling false hope to management and to the fanbase, all while trying to save his job for next season to continue this never-ending cycle of missing out by a few points.

Tallon, on the other hand, who failed to address his needs last summer, now heads into this summer with a larger to-do list than he had going into the previous offseason.

Is this offseason going to be the one where he finds us a competent starter for a reasonable price while picking up a couple of defensemen to help stabilize the back end?

Because if not, you can expect more or less of the same results that you’ve witnessed in the past couple of seasons.

But to give Tallon the benefit of the doubt here, I do truly believe that this summer will be the one where Tallon does check-off a bunch of needs, completing the outlook of this team.

Of course, though, we’ve been given this line time and time again, so how much more, in reality, should we truly believe? Personally, I’ll believe it when I see it.

But for now, I’ll try to enjoy these final ten games as best as possible, attempting to see the light at the end of this very narrow tunnel.

Because in the end, nothing more can possibly hurt this already depleted franchise – not even another summer of failing to address the organization’s needs.