The Florida Panthers' quest to defend their Stanley Cup championship can now officially start.
Even after dropping to 3-0 against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday for their eighth loss in 12 games, the Panthers have has officially secured a place in the Stanley Cup playoffs for a sixth consecutive season following losses by both the New York Rangers and Columbus Blue Jackets.
The 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs begin April 19.
The Panthers have made the Stanley Cup playoffs every year since 2020 and progressed a little further each season, culminating in their first Stanley Cup last season. The year by year breakdown...
▪ 2020 : The Panthers made the expanded 24-team playoff field that took place following a four-and-a-half month break in the schedule due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Florida, as the 10 seed in the Eastern Conference, was eliminated in its qualifying-round series against the No. 7 seed New York Islanders, falling 3-1 in the best-of-5 series.
▪ 2021 : With divisions realigned for the 2020-21 season to limit travel, Florida reached the playoffs as the No. 2 seed in the Central Division and faced the Tampa Bay Lightning in the opening round. The Panthers lost the best-of-7 series to their in-state rival 4-2.
▪ 2022 : The Panthers entered the playoffs as the Presidents’ Trophy winner after racking up an NHL-high 122 points in the regular season. After beating the Washington Capitals in six games for their first playoff series win since 1996, the Panthers were swept by the Lightning 4-0 in the second round.
▪ 2023 : In Year 1 under coach Paul Maurice, the Panthers were the final team in the Eastern Conference to qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. What followed was nothing short of miraculous: A seven-game series win over a Boston Bruins team that set the NHL record for points in a regular-season, a five-game series win over the Toronto Maple Leafs and a four-game sweep of the Carolina Hurricanes to reach the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in franchise history. Injuries, however, took a toll on the Panthers down the stretch, and they lost to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games.
▪ 2024 : The Panthers finally put it all together last season. After winning the Atlantic Division, Florida beat Tampa Bay in five games in the first round, Boston in six games in the second round, the New York Rangers in six games in the Eastern Conference final and the Edmonton Oilers in seven games (after nearly blowing a 3-0 series lead) in the Stanley Cup Final.
Now, the goal is to repeat as Stanley Cup champions, a feat last accomplished by the Lightning in 2020 and 2021.
Florida’s exact postseason path will be finalized over the next week and a half as the standings in the Atlantic Division firm up . The Panthers (44-28-4, 92 points) are currently third in the division, six points behind the Maple Leafs (47-25-4, 98 points). Tampa Bay second in the division.
The team that wins the Atlantic will most likely face the Eastern Conference’s top wild card team, which as of Saturday is the Senators (41-29-6, 88 points), to begin the Stanley Cup playoffs. The teams that finish second and third in the division will face each other in the opening round of the best-of-7 series.
The Panthers will also spend this final stretch trying to get as close to full strength as possible before the playoffs begin.
Star winger Matthew Tkachuk is on long-term injured reserve with an apparent groin injury sustained during the 4 Nations Face-Off tournament in mid-February and will not come back until the playoffs start .
Top-pair defenseman Aaron Ekblad has been sidelined since March 8. during a 20-game ban that will carry into the first two games of the playoffs. Fellow key defenseman Dmitry Kulikov, benched due to an upper-body injury , last played on March 16.
Captain and leading forward Aleksander Barkov (upper-body injury) along with fourth-liner center Nico Sturm (also upper-body injury) have both been sidelined for the last couple of matches. It appears unlikely that they will be back on the ice this coming Sunday when the Panthers face off against the Detroit Red Wings.
