Panthers becoming real contender
The Florida Panthers have not been worth anything since the mid 1990s. Florida became a National Hockey League franchise in 1993 and came out hot, getting to the Stanley Cup Final on a Cinderella run in 1996.
However, the Panthers were swept in the Final by the Colorado Avalanche. The rest of the 1990s didn’t see any progress, and the following 15 years were mostly used to sweep up the basement of the Eastern Conference. Now, the Panthers are finding themselves as legitimate contenders not only ot win the East but perhaps take their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
After Saturday’s action, Florida is sitting atop the Atlantic Division, six points clear of the second-place Tampa Bay Lightning. The Panthers were expected to make a postseason push this season, but nobody could have predicted that they would climb ahead of the Lightning and Montreal Canadiens, the preseason pick of most pundits to reach the Final.
Florida has 68 points, second only to the Washington Capitals in the East. If the playoffs began today, the Panthers would be guaranteed home-ice advantage through at least the first two rounds of the postseason. Considering the recent playoff history of Washington, it might also be a decent bet that the Panthers would have home ice throughout the entire bracket.
While the offense has been solid, it’s Florida’s defense that has stolen the show and vaulted this team from decent to contender in 2016. The Panthers are first in goals against per game at 2.2 and rank seventh in penalty kill percentage at 83.4. The offense sits at seventh as well, scoring just a tick under three goals per contest (2.8).
The forwards are well-balanced, with six players already having double-digit goals. While Vincent Trocheck leads the club with 17 markers, the ageless Jaromir Jagr and Reilly Smith each have 16. Then there are the youngsters ins Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov, with 37 and 34 points, respectively. Florida is three lines deep, making it tough to defend with only one or two quality defensive pairings.
In net, Roberto Luongo has found the fountain of youth. At age 36, Luongo is in his second tour of duty with the Vancouver Canucks after an ugly exit from the Great White North and is authoring a Vezina Trophy-worthy season. Luongo has a 23-13-4 record in 40 games and has posted a 930 save percentage with four shutouts and a minuscule 2.11 goals against average.
The Panthers are currently listed as the team with the ninth-best odds to win the Stanley Cup at 18/1 and are fourth in the East, behind the aforementioned Lightning and Capitals, along with the New York Rangers, per Vegas Insider. After so many years of not being a contender, Florida has to prove that it is for real, but the numbers and veteran presence indicate that this group will be tough in the spring.
