It's been a challenging season for the Panthers but it appears their luck may be changing
For much of the season, the Florida Panthers have been playing catch-up.
The team itself stumbled out of the gate, and between dealing with inconsistent play on the ice and key players missing time with injuries and illnesses, Florida has had to scratch and claw just to remain in contention for a playoff spot.
It is worth mentioning that the Panthers schedule has not done the team any favors.
Florida endured a front-loaded, road heavy gauntlet while navigating the aforementioned issues and during a time where the team was still learning and implementing a new system from a new head coach.
Things finally began to at least appear to be turning in the Panthers favor as the calendar flipped from January to February as the team was getting healthier and the schedule was loosening its stranglehold on the season.
The first week of February was nice and chill thanks to the annual All-Star break giving most of the league some time off, and late in the month brought some much needed down time thanks to a stretch of only playing five games over a span of 16 days.
An opportunity to rest, recover, get back in the gym, in the video room…move at a comfortable pace set by the team for its benefit instead of working around the inconveniences and frustrations that come with constantly being on the road and living out of a suitcase.
Compare that to suddenly playing almost exclusively at home over a stretch of 28 days between late February and mid-March, with Florida's only road game coming in Tampa.
"I'm certainly not complaining about rest, I'm complaining about over-rest," Paul Maurice joked after a recent game. "I complained about under-rest for two months. How about I just stop complaining."
Don't worry Paul, things will pick up again soon though.
Starting with Thursday's win over Montreal, Florida won't have more than one day off between games for over two weeks. They'll play 10 games in 16 days, including a pair of road back-to-backs.
Once that stretch is over, the Panthers play four of their last five games on home ice. How much weight those final games hold will depend how well they do during the final major challenge on their schedule.
"You won't see much practice time between really now and the end of the year, we're just not gonna have that," Maurice said following Monday's practice. "That's the key piece is getting through this thing healthy. Our schedule will be heavy, most of the teams in the league are dealing with that right now, so you're starting to see guys fall out of rosters with injuries. Fingers crossed on that."
Between missing elite players like Sasha Barkov or defenseman Aaron Ekblad for extended periods, losing a veteran leader like Patric Hornqvist for most of the season or having to go 60 games without Anthony Duclair, Florida has more than paid its dues regarding roster challenges.
Now, perhaps, luck will shift in favor of the Panthers. For the team's part, they're doing what they can to help themselves in the luck department.
"It's all part of why they do extra (work) after (practice), why they work hard, but at the end of the day it’s the NHL and you can't predict every injury," Maurice said. "Broken bones, blocked shots, all those kind of things creep up. A lot of times the team that's the healthiest is gonna win."
At least for now, the Panthers are as healthy as they have been all season.
With the schedule shifting from near insanity to relative calm, Florida will soon no longer be the team with more games played than everyone they're fighting with for a playoff spot.
The proverbial stars are aligning. There are no more excuses to be had.
"It's very unusual that other teams would have four games in hand on us and then we would, three weeks later, have games in hand on other people," Maurice said.
No doubt, it's been a strange season.
Strange enough that Florida turning things around and reaching the postseason would feel right as rain.
Right?