November in Florida means a lot of things, none of which most people in the country would understand. There are no falling leaves, weather changes (except for immense amounts of rain), or even the feeling of the winter holidays on the way – but we still have some items that put us in the mainstream. High school football. Pumpkin spice lattes at your local coffee shop. Fall decorations. It also means the hockey season is well under way, and for the locals, it means a chance to revisit a team looking for a little redemption. Ladies and gentlemen, please meet the 2026-2027 Florida Panthers.
Now, for a team that just a year ago was the two-time defending Stanley Cup Champion, that may seem like a strange thing to say. Usually perennially strong franchises don’t look for redemption, but for the Panthers, last year’s non-playoff finish was a bitter pill to swallow. After all, they played in three consecutive Cup finals, winning two of them. So going from the summit of the sport to the back of the soup line was not what the doctor ordered. There were even whispers that their run was a fluke, a by-product of a watered-down league with few super teams. But a closer inspection reveals other things may have been at work causing them to miss the postseason.
The most obvious reason for the players, or more precisely, the missing players. Star center Alexander Barkov missed the entire year following knee surgery to correct a torn ACL. Forward Matthew Tkachuk missed a substantial portion of the year with various “lower body” injuries (translation bad knees, hips and ankles). Defensemen Aaron Ekblad and Seth Jones both missed large parts of the year with hand, foot, and “upper body” injuries. Right winger Brad Marchand missed a sizable chunk of the season with lower body and leg injuries. Stanley Cup stalwart center Sam Bennett also was out with lower body injuries. There were more missing men, but you get the point; in fact, the team had a total of 540-man games missed by players because of one injury or another. That’s the equivalent of six and a half seasons. No team can overcome that handicap. Ironically, the team itself is partly to blame for that statistic. By being so good, their seasons extended well into June – which means they played an extra season over that time span. That’s a lot of extra ice time, and wear and tear on bodies in a physical sport. To their credit, the Panthers didn’t stand pat. They went out and traded for Matthew’s brother, Brady, and now boast one of the only brother tandems in the league, as well as a potent 1-2 combination on its front lines. Gone, too, is former finals MVP goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, replaced via a trade with the New Jersey Devils for Jacob Markstrom.
Will the changes work?
As of this writing the answer is yes, as Florida sits in fourth place in its division – but only a few points out of first place, and with more than two-thirds of the season yet to play. So, hang in there, fans of the men on ice. Your team looks to be going on a power play of its own, and returning to the Land of Champions.
Game on!
