Florida closed the season on a 5-0-1 run that helped them claim the Atlantic Division crown

Now that the Stanley Cup Playoffs have finally arrived, we’ve just got one little piece of business to take care of before we can completely move on to the best postseason in all of sports.

On Tuesday, the Florida Panthers closed out their regular season with a 5-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Florida’s win, combined with a loss by the Boston Bruins at home to Ottawa, clinched the 2024 Atlantic Division title for the Panthers.

Let’s get to our last set of regular season takeaways.

Going out with a bang

Talk about a happy ending.

For all the frustrations that came with Florida’s rough stretch of games following the trade deadline, boy oh boy did the Cats close out the season on a high note.

The Panthers ended the season on a six-game points streak and with wins in four straight.

Now they get to enter the playoffs feeling great about their game and with a fully healthy roster.

“It was good down the stretch,” Maurice said. “I liked tonight’s game especially, because the first period was kind of similar to almost (the past) month, it was just okay, it was pretty good, but we were down a couple. And then the second period was kind of the first time in a while that we looked the way we're supposed to look, and you can feel it. It's more than just the way we looked, you could feel the energy level on the bench.”

Funk helped the push

Perhaps that late season funk the Panthers went through was a blessing in disguise.

Florida’s dip in the standings gave them a reason to remain engaged right up until Game 82, and despite dealing with a few minor injuries, the Cats were able to prove that they could persevere.

“We didn't sit on it,” Maurice said. “We had some injuries there and I thought we were pretty fatigued in that block, but we built our way back. We had something to play for every night, and we didn't cheat the game. Nobody was out there playing for points.”

Strong showing for Swaggy

While Maurice had maintained that Aaron Ekblad and Carter Verhaeghe weren’t going to play until the playoffs, the team decided to throw us all a curveball on Tuesday.

After feeling good for a couple days in a row, Verhaeghe said he felt he might as well suit up and get a game under his belt ahead of the postseason.

He finished with a goal on six shots, a plus-two rating and a blocked shot in just under 19 minutes of ice time.

Perhaps just as importantly, his line with Sam Bennett and Matthew Tkachuk had some of the team’s best advanced metrics, out-chancing Toronto 6-1 at even strength and outscoring them 2-0, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“He just changes the way we look,” Maurice said. “That line looks real fast again. You want your A players back in the lineup so it gives you an idea of what you're going to look like. So that line starts the second period, it scores a goal, and that's the line that got us going. It won't be Barkov every night, and I thought as game built, the Lundell line started to generate and started to look right. It's good that he came back, we missed him for those six games, but now it's a benefit. He had six games worth of rest going into the playoffs. So he's good.”

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