Back-to-back Stanley Cup champion Panthers eliminated from playoff contention

For the first time since 2019, the Stanley Cup Playoffs will not feature the Florida Panthers, who were mathematically eliminated from postseason contention on Saturday after losing 9-4 to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

The Panthers, who have made it to the past three Stanley Cup Finals and won each of the past two, were not able to overcome an onslaught of injuries that plagued them from before the puck even dropped on the season.

Star center and perennial Selke Trophy favorite Aleksander Barkov tore his ACL during the pre-season and has been shut down with the team out of the mix, and Matthew Tkachuk missed the first half of the year as well.

Veteran goalie Sergei Bobrovsky never really found much of a rhythm, as the 37-year-old currently owns a .879 save percentage and 3.00 GAA.

Despite it all, Florida only fell out of the race entirely somewhat recently. On January 27, they were 28-21-3 and ninth in the East and six points back of the cut line with two games in hand. Since that date, wins have been hard to come by, and their 8-14-0 record since then has done them in.

With the writing on the wall for their playoff chances for some time now and injuries piling up, Florida has opted to shut down several players for the rest of the season.

When the Panthers took the ice on Thursday night, they were without Barkov, Sam Reinhart, Brad Marchand, Anton Lundell, Evan Rodrigues and Cole Schwindt up front as well as Aaron Ekblad, Niko Mikkola, Uvis Balinskis and Dmitry Kulikov on the back end.

Looking forward, Florida is set to return the vast majority of its core next season, with the exception of Bobrovsky, who is set to be an unrestricted free agent.

General manager Bill Zito will be in the advantageous position of having the cap space available to add talent to a Stanley Cup-caliber roster already in place.