The Florida Panthers let a two-goal lead slip away in a 5-3 loss to the Buffalo Sabres on Monday. That marked Florida’s fourth loss in a row and dropped the team to last place in the Atlantic Division.

Star winger Matthew Tkachuk pointed to a loss of identity as the main issue in the defeat.

“We just got away from our game, we didn’t play that [way] the whole game and then it got away from us,” Tkachuk said to reporters after the loss. “Honestly, they’re way more skilled than us, that team, from an individual standpoint [in terms of] skill, they have us by a lot. We have a certain style, and if we play it, we’re successful, but we just have not played it enough.”

The Panthers now sit nine points out of a playoff spot as their division rivals all seem to have gotten hot at the same time – only Florida and the Toronto Maple Leafs have a losing record of their past 10 games, and the top six teams in the Atlantic Division are a combined 38-12-10 over their past 10 games.

“We’re not running anybody out of the arena [when we’re up] 2-0,” head coach Paul Maurice said of the failure to maintain the lead against Buffalo on Monday. “We’re just not in a position to do that. We have to stay in the fight as long as we can.”

Star forward Sam Bennett departed Monday’s game with an upper-body injury to add more salt to the wound in a season that is quickly going south for the two-time defending Stanley Cup champions.

“Well, we got miles on some guys,” Maurice said. “You’re missing your centre, and that’s a problem with a couple of [defencemen] out … They’re grinding, they’re battling as hard as they can.”

The Panthers have struggled to put a consistent lineup on the ice as the team has dealt with injuries to key contributors throughout the campaign.

Star centre and team captain Aleksander Barkov has missed the entire season thus far and centre Anton Lundell has been out since suffering an upper-body injury last week. Veteran centre Tomas Nosek has also yet to play in 2025-26 after having an off-season knee procedure, and Tkachuk has played in just eight games after missing the first three months of the season recovering from off-season surgery.

“It seems like somebody’s getting injured every night,” Tkachuk said after the game to reporters. “That’s never ideal when guys go out with an injury that early, but I thought some guys stepped up.

“Some of the guys in right now, I’m seeing them just work their absolute ass off and grind and play through stuff so that they can stay in and play, so it’s been wild, but we are in trouble right now.”

Things are not getting any easier for the Panthers as they play a back-to-back against the Boston Bruins and Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday and Friday before the beginning of the Olympic break. Those two teams have lost a combined two games in regulation over the past three weeks.

“You don’t have a lot of options [moving forward] when things are the way they are, you just have to put your character out there and your heart,” said Maurice.

“We’re in one right now, and if we don’t try to simplify [our game], this season’s going to get away from us,” Tkachuk added.