The Florida Panthers dug too big a hole and couldn’t climb out of it.
It’s both what happened Monday in their 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators in Canada and, almost certainly, their season. A massively disappointing start to the 2022-23 NHL season now has the Panthers are on the verge of missing the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, even after they regrouped for a bit in the middle of the year.
Almost all the work they did throughout January and February, however, has been undone in the last week. Florida has lost four in a row — its longest losing streak of the season — and sits multiple points and now sits three points out of playoff position with only eight games left in the regular season.
