The Rat Trick
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Florida Panthers: Review of the past two playoff appearances

By Kirby Lupul

SUNRISE, FL - APRIL 22: A Florida Panthers fan shows off a collection of victory rats prior to the puck drop in Game Five of the Eastern Conference First Round against the New York Islanders during the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the BB
SUNRISE, FL - APRIL 22: A Florida Panthers fan shows off a collection of victory rats prior to the puck drop in Game Five of the Eastern Conference First Round against the New York Islanders during the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the BB /
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We take a look back at the Florida Panthers two most recent playoff appearances. Both the 2011-12 and 2015-16 Panthers clubs won the division title–the latter produced a franchise record season.

The Florida Panthers have captured only five playoff appearances in 24 seasons. Any morsel of success within the club’s history can easily be highlighted.

Very few prognosticators gave the 2011-12 Panthers roster a chance heading into the season.

The 2011-12 team ended a decade-plus-long playoff drought when they won the Southeast Division. With one of the top producing lines in hockey (Tomas Fleischmann, Stephen Weiss and Kris Versteeg), the Panthers won the division despite recording a league-high 18 OT/losses.

In fact, the last time the Panthers made the playoffs previously was in 1999-00 when Pavel Bure was still lacing them up.

A few more pundits gave the Panthers an outside chance to squeak into the playoffs in 2015-16, but no one could envision how the season would eventually play out.

The 2015-16 team set franchise records in:

  • Points (103)
  • Wins (47)
  • Regular season winning streak (12 games)

Propelling the 2015-16 Atlantic Division champs was a balanced top-six forward unit, and a “lucky” PDO% (1.016-2nd best).

Sadly, both these playoff appearances ended in heartbreaking fashion (overtime). In 2012, a thrilling game seven double-OT loss to the New Jersey Devils and in 2016, a game six crushing OT defeat to the New York Islanders abruptly ended the Panthers most promising season ever.

From the 2012 playoffs, if a picture could speak a thousand words…this would.

 The most striking difference between these two Panthers teams was how each respective squad fared in team statistics:

  • 2011-12 Panthers: 203 GF/227 GA/-24 Goal Differential
  • 2015-16 Panthers: 239 GF/203 GA/+36 Goal Differential

The individual numbers from both playoff seasons reflect each other much closer:

  • 11/12: four players finished the season with 50 PTS or more/nine players with double-digit goals (same during 2015-16 season)
  • 15/16: all top-six forwards finished the season with 50 PTS or more/five players scored 20 or more goals

Panthers home game atmosphere are night and day difference when a playoff caliber team is skating towards a playoff berth.

Next: Florida Panthers: Aspects of the game that the Assistant Coaches impact on

The South Florida sports scene is “what have you done for me lately” market. The two divisional banners hanging from the rafters are nice and all, but simply not enough in a current win-now franchise built model.

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