Florida held the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference on Dec. 30 but hasn\u2019t been in a playoff spot since.<\/p>\n
The Panthers were three points behind the Boston Bruins for the second wild card Jan. 25, but they went 2-9-0 afterward and were 10 points behind the Bruins for the second wild card at the deadline.<\/p>\n
It was notable when the Panthers scratched forward A.J. Greer<\/a> and didn\u2019t play goalie Sergei Bobrovsky<\/a>\u00a0in a 4-2 loss at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday. Each can become an unrestricted free agent July 1.<\/p>\n \u201cYou always listen,\u201d Zito said. \u201cWhen the phone rings, you answer it, because you don\u2019t know what could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, nothing happened with them, though. Zito said he wants to re-sign them, and both played at Detroit.<\/p>\n Bobrovsky had an .873 save percentage at the deadline, the worst in his 16 NHL seasons, and he will turn 38 on Sept. 20. But Zito called him part of the core.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe perhaps his stats are lower, but I\u2019m not sure that \u2018decline\u2019 is the word I\u2019d use,\u201d Zito said. \u201cI think he\u2019s fine. He\u2019s had a hell of a workload. He\u2019s a consummate professional, and I want Sergei to stay, and I\u2019m looking forward to having him back.\u201d<\/p>\n The Panthers traded defenseman Jeff Petry<\/a> to the Minnesota Wild for a conditional seventh-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft Thursday, giving the 38-year-old a chance to chase the Cup. He was a pending UFA who wasn\u2019t part of their championship teams.<\/p>\n They acquired forward Vinnie Hinostroza<\/a> for future considerations in a trade with the Wild and claimed forward Cole Reinhardt<\/a>\u00a0off waivers from the Vegas Golden Knights on Friday. Hinostroza is a pending UFA; Reinhardt is signed for one more season.<\/p>\n Basically, Petry was easy to subtract, and Hinostroza and Reinhardt cost nothing to add. The Panthers can see if they fit for the future and, most importantly, use them for depth for the stretch run.<\/p>\n The Detroit game came at the end of a four-game road trip. Zito said when the team returns, he will meet with the coaches, the medical staff and the sports science staff to evaluate each player and figure out \u201cthe most prudent way to move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been managing a bunch of injuries here,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got guys out, but we\u2019ve got guys playing [with injuries], and those are the ones that I think are more difficult for us to manage.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of these guys are probably going to have to get some rest. We don\u2019t want to have an injury that\u2019s been nagging for two months that gets worse in the last week that sets a guy back two months in his rehab.\u201d<\/p>\n Missing the playoffs wouldn\u2019t be the worst thing for Florida under the circumstances. Really, it would be for the best. A long offseason of rest and rehab could be just what the doctor ordered. The Panthers roster remains loaded, their identity remains intact, and they\u2019d add an intangible.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think the future\u2019s bright,\u201d Zito said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m excited and, I can tell you, hungry.\u201d<\/p>\n Florida? Healthy and hungry? Uh-oh.<\/p>\n \u201cIf it means that we start resting and recovering in April, then that will be our job, and we\u2019ll make full value of that,\u201d Maurice said. \u201cI can tell you there\u2019s a bunch of men in there that it would be very good for, and then they get to train harder. But \u2026 you have to rebuild it every year.<\/p>\n \u201cNow, you have the pieces, but the commitment goes so far beyond the talent of the individual players or even of your team. That has to start in training camp. We\u2019ll play hard here [the rest of the season], try to make sure that we adhere to our style of game as we can with the players that we have, and then we will deal with that day when it comes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida held the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference on Dec. 30 but hasn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-182977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}