Wednesday Caterwaul: Florida Panthers Open Forum

Mar 15, 2023 - 11:55 AM

The Florida Panthers playoff chances got a boost last night as both of the Eastern Conference’s current wild cards went down and some of the other teams involved in the postseason chase also lost.

The best news of the night came from the late game, with the Los Angeles Kings downing the New York Islanders, 5-2. This result left the Cats three points behind the Islanders and gives them two games in hand on New York.

Florida’s next opponent, the Montreal Canadiens toppled the Pittsburgh Penguins 6-4 at PPG Paints Arena. The Penguins still lead the Panthers by five points, but now the clubs have played the same amount (67) of games.

As for the teams trailing the Cats in the race, the Washington Capitals fell 5-3 to the New York Rangers, the Ottawa Senators were doubled-up 6-3 by the Edmonton Oilers, and the Nashville Predators edged the Detroit Red Wings by a 2-1 count.

Five-for-five? Who woulda thunk it?

As of this morning, the wild card race looks like this:

• WC1: Pittsburgh - 78 points / 15 games remaining
• WC2: N.Y. Islanders - 76 points / 13 games remaining
• 9th: Florida - 73 points / 15 games remaining
• 10th: Buffalo - 71 points / 16 games remaining
• 11th: Washington - 71 points / 14 games remaining
• 12th: Ottawa - 70 points / 15 games remaining
• 13th: Detroit - 69 points / 15 games remaining

The Islanders are now on pace to finish with 90.3 points. For Florida to eclipse that (rounding up to 91) they would need to finish 9-5-1 to get to 92 points. Difficult, but doable.

Tonight’s key games

• Buffalo at Washington 7 p.m.
• N.Y. Islanders at Anaheim 10 p.m.