Pittsburgh's late-season struggles culminated in an epic collapse on home ice during game No. 81

Remember back when the Florida Panthers clinched their playoff spot during the final days of last season?

Riding a seven-game points streak in which Florida had gone 6-0-1, the Panthers had one final game on the schedule left to play.

The Panthers were holding one of the Eastern Conference’s two wild card spots, but had two days off before their final game was to be played. Let’s go back…

It was a Tuesday night.

Entering play, the idle Panthers had 92 points and were all alone in the top Wild Card spot. One point back with one game to play was the New York Islanders, and two behind Florida were the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Pens had two games remaining, one of which was to be played that night, at home, against the league-worst Chicago Blackhawks.

“We’ll definitely have it on,” Panthers defenseman Brandon Montour said at the time of the Pens-Hawks matchup.

In the game, Chicago and Pittsburgh were tied 1-1 in the third period when the Blackhawks scored twice in :26 seconds.

A couple insurance tallies and an incredible effort by Petr Mrazek in goal cemented the incredible upset and – along with a loss that night by the Buffalo Sabres to mathematically eliminate their postseason aspirations – placed that coveted “X” next to the Panthers name in the league standings.

Now you may be asking yourself, ‘Why are we talking about now?’

Well, the Panthers are in Chicago for the first time since that faithful night, and Florida Head Coach Paul Maurice was asked about it after the team practiced on Friday.

His answer, along with a display of his amazing recall skills, can be seen in the video at the top of this story.

It’s definitely worth a watch, as it’s a reminder that at the end of the day, when it all comes down to it, these amazing professionals are still just regular people like you and I. 

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