The Florida Panthers are still a few days away from holding their first practice during the 2026 Winter Olympic break but are only a week away from playing their first game since losing in Tampa on Feb. 5.
Next Thursday night at 7, the Panthers play host to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Both teams desperately need a win if they hope to turn around disappointing seasons and make a run at the playoffs.
Florida came into the break with losses in five of six and are eight points behind the Boston Bruins for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Toronto won its final three games before going on hiatus and six just two points ahead of the Panthers.
Aside from the Rangers (50 points) and Devils (58), everyone in the Eastern Conference is ahead of the Panthers (61).
Making the playoffs in their defense of the Stanley Cup is not going to come easy for the Panthers.
Florida has 25 games in 49 days to try and not only catch Boston, but to jump the other five teams in front of them.
To make the playoffs, the Panthers will likely need at least 39 of the available 50 points to hit 100 — and even that may not be enough.
Winning four of five the rest of the way may be what it takes to get the Panthers in.
The Panthers may be without backup goalie Daniil Tarasov coming out of the break after he appeared to suffer a serious groin injury during the third period of the 6-1 loss to the Lightning.
Tarasov was hit and went down hard into the goal cage, unable to get back up on the ice leading to Tampa Bay’s fifth goal of the night.
He had to be helped off the ice and into the tunnel.
An update on his status will come this weekend when the Panthers return for practice in Fort Lauderdale.
The Panthers could have started practice on Tuesday, only with so many of their players in Milan for the Olympics, Maurice decided to hold off on resuming workouts.
Maurice and his practices will be a little light when it comes to attendance when they do start.
After Wednesday’s quarterfinal round, the Panthers still have seven players competing for gold which means those players may just join the team for Thursday’s morning skate and play that night.
Maybe.
Latvia’s Uvis Balinskis and Sandis Vilmanis should be back soon enough; Gus Forsling will likely return next week after Sweden lost in overtime to Team USA.
Toronto, like most NHL teams, only had a handful of players play in the Olympics and only has Team USA captain Auston Matthews still playing.
Maurice may, as he did last year after the 4 Nations Face-Off, try and give some of his Olympians some time off as he can.
Only this time around, there is not much time for rest.
Also, Maurice had the benefit last season of knowing his team was pretty secure in its playoff positioning.
That certainly is not the case now.
Look at the schedule the rest of the way: Coming out of the break, the Panthers play a home back-to-back against Toronto and Buffalo.
In the first week, Florida will play five times and six games in an eight-day span with a four-game road trip that starts on Long Island on March 1.
That’s just the start.
With 25 games in 49 days, the Panthers have five sets of back-to-backs, four road trips including five games games from April 4-11, and only two instances when the team has more than two straight days off.
It’s going to be rough sledding.
Florida is expecting to get Seth Jones, Jonah Gadjovich, and Dmitry Kulikov back from injury and that should help.
ON DECK: NHL WINTER OLYMPIC BREAK
NEXT GAME — No. 58
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS at FLORIDA PANTHERS
