Florida Panthers can secure their berth to the playoffs with a win Thursday

The Florida Panthers can officially clinch a playoff spot with a win in any fashion over the New York Islanders in Thursday night’s game.

If the Panthers lose to the Islanders, there are a few other clinching scenarios in play Thursday night. If they get a point against the Isles and either the Detroit Red Wings lose to the Carolina Hurricanes and the Philadelphia Flyers lose to the Montreal Canadiens in regulation, the Panthers will clinch a playoff spot.

If the Hurricanes beat the Red Wings in regulation and the Panthers get a point Thursday, they will lock up a playoff spot as well.

Panthers Coach Paul Maurice was asked Thursday morning about the possibility of clinching a playoff spot. 

“Yeah, it’s hard to do” Maurice said. “When you are making the playoffs, you think well you should make the playoffs every year if you just do it right and just play your game... it’s hard to do”.

While the Panthers lost Tuesday night, they did a get a big spark to their offence with the return of  Captain Aleksander Barkov to the lineup. Thursday night they will get a spark on the defensive end as well, as defensemen Aaron Ekblad is set to return after missing 7 games with an injury.

The returns of both Barkov and Ekblad are obviously huge for the Panthers down the stretch. With just 10 games remaining in the regular season, both the number one  seed in the Atlantic division and number one seed in the Eastern Conference are very much up for grabs.

Let’s see if the Panthers can get it done on Thursday night and clinch a spot in the big dance.

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