Five key Panthers stats for the final 5 days of the regular season: Lyon, Ekblad and more
After they won the Presidents’ Trophy last season and sat as many as nine points out of a playoff spot earlier this year, the Florida Panthers are in the thick of the NHL’s wildest race in the final week of the regular season.
With five days left in the 2022-23 NHL season, the Panthers are one of four teams vying for two wild cards in the Eastern Conference and they could clinch a spot in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs as soon as Monday or be eliminated Thursday.
“It’s got to be the best part of your day, like you wake up this morning and you’re excited for a game, we’re only nine hours till game time, because you know what? You’ve done your work now,” coach Paul Maurice said. “You’ve done your prep, the video is done, the game plan is done. All of it is done and now you get to sit and enjoy the hell out of the moment.”
Although Florida has the third-toughest remaining schedule in the league, there are a few factors in its favor: The Panthers control their own destiny, play their last two games at FLA Live Arena in Sunrise and are peaking, taking their first six-game winning streak of the season into the final week of the regular season.
Five other numbers sum up the need-to-know information for the last five days of the season.
10 — relevant games for playoffs
Florida can make every other game across the league irrelevant by just beating the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday and the Hurricanes on Thursday. If not, there will be eight other games to monitor.
Eight other games this week could play a role in the wild card race.
The Islanders, currently in the second wild card, play the Capitals in Washington on Monday and the Canadiens in New York on Wednesday. The Penguins, one point behind the Panthers and Islanders, play the Blackhawks in Pittsburgh on Tuesday and the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Thursday.
There’s also an outside shot the Sabres, who still have four games left, could make up ground by winning at least three of four. They play the Rangers in New York on Monday, the Devils in New Jersey on Tuesday, the Senators in Buffalo on Thursday and finally the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Friday.
Florida could clinch by the end of the day Monday, though. If the Panthers beat the Maple Leafs and the Islanders lose to the Capitals, then Florida will clinch a wild card and make the traditional 16-team Stanley Cup playoffs for the third straight year.
“It’s up to us,” All-Star center Aleksander Barkov said. “The last few games, we take it as a game at a time, a shift at a time, so we don’t think too far ahead.”
.956 — Alex Lyon’s save percentage
Florida stuck with Alex Lyon in net Monday, even with star goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky available for two consecutive games now. It’s Lyon’s seventh straight start — the 30-year-old goaltender had only even played 31 games in his NHL career before this run started — and Maurice didn’t want to “overthink” his decision.
When Bobrovsky went out with an illness last month and Lyon took over, the Panthers had lost four in a row. They promptly turned around and put together their longest winning streak of the season, with Lyon posting a .956 save percentage across his first six games.
Bobrovsky, who was inactive for the first five games of the winning streak due to his illness, is Lyon’s backup for the second straight game.
“You just watch the game. He’s playing really well,” Maurice said. “He’s the right guy.”
7 — Aaron Ekblad’s point streak
Aaron Ekblad is also playing perhaps the best hockey of his career, riding a career-best seven-game point streak into the final week of the regular season.
It’s an extreme shift for the star defenseman, who only had 30 points all year before ripping off eight in seven games.
Four of those eight points came on the power play. He’s now a fixture on the top power-play unit again after Florida pulled him off the group earlier this year because of his struggles.
“He had come off the power play and understood it, like he wasn’t fighting for it, he knew it wasn’t there for him,” Maurice said. “When he went back out, he’s been a different player in terms of his focus on shooting pucks and pounding it to the net.”
40 — points from Panthers’ stars
Really, all of the Panthers’ stars are playing their best at the most important time of the season.
Ekblad, Barkov, All-Star right wing Matthew Tkachuk and star defenseman Brandon Montour — probably Florida’s four most accomplished skaters — combined for 40 points during the six-game winning streak.
Ekblad had seven points with two goals and five assists. Barkov had 11 points with two goals and nine assists, including two three-point games. Tkachuk had 11 points with five goals and six assists, including one hat trick and another three-point game in Washington on Saturday to become only the third Panther to ever hit the 40-goal mark. Montour had 11 points with two goals and nine assists, and entered the week tied for fourth in points among defensemen with 72.
11 — games missed by Bennett
Florida will have to play at least half its remaining games without its second-line center though.
Sam Bennett skated Monday, but ultimately missed his 11th straight game. The center will skate again Tuesday and the Panthers are holding out hope he’ll be available for the regular-season finale Thursday.
“I don’t know,” Maurice said. “It’ll all depend on how he looks tomorrow.”
