Bennett has not played for the Panthers since suffering an injury on March 20

The Florida Panthers are preparing to embark on what should prove to be an extremely challenging playoff journey, one that will begin Monday night in Boston.

Just how far the Panthers travel on their postseason expedition remains to be seen, but the team is fortunate to be departing at nearly full-strength.

The one glaring outlier in that department is forward Sam Bennett.

Florida has been without its second line center since he left the Cats’ 5-2 win at Detroit on March 20 midway through the third period.

Initially the Panthers struggled mightily without Bennett, dropping their next four games. At the time, it appeared the sky was falling and Florida’s late-season surge toward making the playoffs would come up short.

Ultimately, the Panthers pulled things back together and closed out their schedule on a 6-1-1 run that got them into the postseason as the second Wild Card team.

Now they’ll face the Presidents’ Trophy-winning, NHL-record-breaking Bruins in the opening round of the playoffs.

Boston boasts what is arguably the most complete unit, top to bottom, in all the league. There is no shortage of quality talent on their roster.

“They have got five really good players that won’t make their Opening Night roster,” said Panthers Head Coach Paul Maurice. “They’re deep, for sure.”

Depth is something the Panthers seemed to briefly enjoy in the time between Anthony Duclair joining the lineup after missing most of the year recovering from Achilles surgery and when Bennett went down in Detroit.

The trickle-down impact of the talent in Florida’s forward ranks finally felt similar to what they enjoyed a season ago, when it was the Panthers having the epic regular season success.

For Florida to have their best chance at slaying the Beantown dragon, one would think the team having all its weapons available is paramount to that potential success.

On Sunday, Bennett skated for the second day in a row.

After his latest on-ice workout, Maurice said Bennett taking the ice Monday morning in Boston would depend how good he felt in the hours following the Saturday and Sunday skates.

So these are positive signs.

“Good,” Maurice said when asked about Bennett’s progress on Sunday. “He got though the first part (Saturday) so it was a full (workout today). He got all his gear on, and got a bit of a tug here today.”

Depending how Bennett’s injury responds to these back-to-back workouts, he could be practicing with his teammates this week in Boston for the first time in nearly a month.

Maurice said that Bennett would be traveling with the team when they departed South Florida on Sunday afternoon. 

Trying to put a target date on Bennett playing in an actual game would be difficult considering how his recovery has very much been a day-to-day process.

Game One between the Panthers and Bruins is Monday at TD Garden in Boston and Game Two is Wednesday.

For Bennett, right now it’s simply about feeling good.

He’s putting in the work and testing the recovery of his injury.

Should it continue to respond well, things could get interesting for Bennett and the Panthers in the coming days.

“If he feels as good as he feels right now tomorrow, we’ll get him into a version of what we’ll have for a morning skate, and then start building,” said Maurice.