In what appears to be a very close race in the Atlantic Division, the Florida Panthers need to start distancing themselves away from the pack.
The battle for the three divisional spots in the Atlantic remains very close and tight. The division, in truth, has gotten off to a slow start and has surprised the eyes of many. Not many would’ve predicted the overall weakness that we see from the entirety of the Atlantic thus far.
The Metropolitan, on the other hand, has surprisingly been strong and currently occupies both wild card spots as we speak. That leaves us with our beloved Florida Panthers.
The common theme so far has been that either the Panthers sit in one of the three protected Atlantic Divisional spots or they look from the outside in beneath one of the two wild card positions.
Given the strength of the Metro and the ROW numbers (regulation + OT victories) that each of them has, it seems that it could very well come down to the protected three divisional spots or simply bust.
As we speak, the Panthers are currently behind the Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres by one and three points respectively, sitting below the second wild-card spot by four points – behind the Philadelphia Flyers.
It doesn’t seem like the Panthers will catch any of the Metro teams (Flyers and Penguins specifically) any time soon given their inability to string more than two wins together. On the other hand, the Cats have slipped as of late and are starting to lose ground in their own division, allowing the Habs and Sabres to leapfrog them in result.
At the same time, the Tampa Bay Lightning – who got off to a slow start this season – currently find themselves ahead of the Panthers with a game in hand, seeming to heat up as of late.
The Toronto Maple Leafs – who also experienced a rather sluggish start to their season – have somewhat been getting back into the mix of things after a coaching change-up. Unlike the Lightning, they currently sit just one point behind the Cats with two more games being played. It was only just weeks ago that the Panthers had a nice little cushion on them with games in their back pocket, which they have completely squandered.
Given all of this, this is where the Panthers are at. They’ve made their bed and now they must lay in it, forcing to fix the predicament they got themselves into. It’s still early in the season and there’s certainly time left to regroup, but if a change is going to come, it’s going to have to come now.
The time to pick yourself up and run away with the division is going to have to come now considering that Tampa has woken up and Toronto is bound to get going at some point sometime soon.
Unless something unusual occurs in the Metropolitan sometime in the new year, the Cats cannot rely to fall back on one of the two wild-card spots. If they want to secure a playoff berth this time around it will have to be within their own division, which could be a dog fight by the end of the year.
At this time, things aren’t looking so good in Pantherland, and with the team giving up crucial ground at a critical turning point, it could be another desperation-like season that we saw back in 2017-18.
Only time will tell, but the Panthers need to start helping themselves rather than worrying about their opponents. Only they can decide their fate and which direction they head into come the new year.