Florida Panthers: The Week Ahead - 3/15-3/21

With only one month left in the season and two big wins at home last week, our Cats still hold on to slim playoff hopes. 11 points out of the eighth seed and 10 out of 30th place, the Cats’ future is there for the tanking taking, as it always seems to be this time of the year. That aside, I think we can all agree beating Chicago and Tampa Bay was unexpectedly satisfying, further proving that our little team can compete with the league’s Big Guns even on an eight-game winning streak.

As far as the loss to Ottawa, I certainly didn’t mind; the points we gave them will likely come back to help us as the Sens are slowly creeping up the standings. 13 games remain people, the future is near! As I promised, there would be games that we need to win for pride and bragging rights. On Tuesday, we host the Philadelphia Flyers and on Thursday we host the Toronto Maple Leafs, winning both games would even the season series and leave a very sweet taste in our collective mouths. More after the jump.

At this point, the possibility of losing our way into 30th place is all but over. Edmonton has a few games that could translate into wins in the last two weeks of March, but the Avs…well let’s say they really want Gabriel Landeskog. If we beat Philly and Toronto this week and the Avs and Oilers lose, we of the tanking faction can shift her into neutral and see where our feisty little team puts us come the end of the regular season. This is our week ahead:

For this week, let’s just hope the Sens and Isles keep up their impressive play and put up a few more wins. Playing for pride and tanking for the pick are two options that really can’t be done together, but if one truly believes that Edmonton and Colorado are locks for picks 1 and 2, and Ottawa and the Isles keep playing well, we can potentially take the third pick and while winning some games for pride. Following the same equation as last week, simulated standings for the bottom five follows: Colorado (64), Edmonton (66), Florida (75), Ottawa (75) and New York (79).

Here are today’s (3/14) standings:

And if everything works out in our favor:

Of course, if we win against PHI and TOR, we do lose some ground on Edmonton and Colorado, but the benefit of beating at least Philly might outweigh the points we’d gain. For Ryan Carter and Niclas Bergfors, who recently scored their first goals as Panthers, beating Philly would hopefully remind them that they can lead this team to a win just like they did against Tampa Bay. Again, the effort that this team has played with is absolutely delightful, whether they are grizzled veterans or Rochester call-ups battling for a spot, the energy and intensity is certainly not being overlooked by me anyways.  

Also, kudos to Shawn Matthias and Jack Skille for shaving their heads and welcome back to the Panthers' Mike Duco, recalled on Monday.