Florida Panthers disappointing season ends early. More changes coming this offseason?

This season was supposed to usher in a new era for the Florida Panthers.

Joel Quenneville’s arrival in the offseason was supposed to mark a culture change for the Panthers, who have only won a postseason once in their 27-year history. Sergei Bobrovsky’s was supposed to finally bring a superstar to Florida and elevate a once-promising young core toward sustained success after three straight years missing the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Panthers’ season was once thrilling in the first half of the year and then massively disappointing as they slipped out of the playoff picture after the All-Star break. Florida was even given second life when the COVID-19 pandemic led the NHL to expand its postseason to 24 teams.

On Friday, the flameout was all too familiar. The Panthers, after extending their season a few more days by winning Wednesday, fell behind by two goals early against the New York Islanders in Game 4 of a five-game series and tumbled out of the qualifying round with a 5-1 loss in Toronto. For the fourth season in a row, Florida will be drafting in the lottery after the Islanders finished off the 3-1 series win to keep the Panthers out of the traditional 16-team playoffs. Now even more organizational changes loom.

“It’s a process,” Bobrovsky said. “You can’t jump right away to the roof. We have to make some steps, baby steps, toward our goal.

Those first two goals for New York at came in the span of less than four minutes in the first period. Although Florida answered on the power play before the end of the period, the deficit was too much to make up for the Panthers, who were never able to come back at any point in the best-of-5 series against the defensive-minded Islanders at Scotiabank Arena.

In Game 1, Florida fell behind by two goals and couldn’t quite climb back in the third period. In Game 2, the Panthers blew a lead in the second period and could never regroup after New York took the lead. On Wednesday, Florida once again found a deficit insurmountable and the season ended familiarly short of the Cup playoffs.

The good: Sergei Bobrovsky

Anthony Beauviller scored first with 8:27 left in the first period after the Panthers botched a clear attempt. The forward scored again with 4:50 left in the period after Florida’s defense conceded a 2-on-1 rush for Beauvillier and Matthew Barzal. The Panthers were quickly in a 2-0 hole and playing their worst period of the series.

Beauvillier’s first goal was soft. The Islanders got a second chance at an attack after Florida failed to clear the zone and Beauvillier found himself to the right of the goal with his back to the net. The left-handed Canadian flipped a backhanded, no-look, no-angle shot at the net, just trying to create some chaos. Bobrovsky left his five-hole open, though, and the puck rattled over his stick, off his skate, through his legs and into net.

“I was looking at the middle. There was a guy coming to the slot, so I didn’t expect that,” Bobrovsky said. “If we rewind that, I would do the same thing, o it’s just one of those things where you have to find a way and not let those in, but, again, it is what it is. Mistakes is mistakes. It’s a game of mistakes.”

It was the first time in the expanded postseason Bobrovsky, who had been so reliable through the first three games of the series, reverted to his massively disappointing regular-season form.

Last year, the Panthers handed Bobrovsky a seven-year, $70-million deal, making him one of the highest paid goalies in the NHL. The two-time Vezina Trophy winner responded with his worst regular season since his second year in the league, giving up 3.23 goals per game with a meager .900 save percentage.

He took the COVID shutdown to settle in at his new home and arrived for the postseason as the anchor Florida hoped it was getting. On Friday, he faced 37 shots and stopped 33, including three in quick succession on a penalty kill in the second period to keep the Panthers down 2-1. He first blocked a slap shot coming from his right side and turned away a rebound attempt right in front him, then dove to his left to deny Barzal as he barreled in to shoot at an open net.

The goalie finished his first postseason in Florida with a .908 save percentage and 3.00 goals against average.

“He had a lot of pressure on him with the signing of the deal and expectations are high,” Quenneville said. “I like how he battled in that second period there. ... We’re still in the hockey game there and he did what he had to do.”

Beauvillier’s second goal was all New York needed. Less than four minutes after Beauvillier scored his first, Barzal caught the Panthers making a line change and extended his own shift to take advantage. The All-Star center charged down the right side of the ice and drew the undermanned defense his way. Beauvillier was wide open on the other side of the net and Barzal fed his left wing for another goal with 4:50 left in the period.

Every other goal Bobrovsky allowed Friday came after a defensive breakdown like this one.

The bad: The offense

For about 19 minutes, the first was the worst period Florida played in the entire expanded postseason. The Panthers managed just four even-strength shots and spent most of the time backed up in their own zone, save for a pair of power-play opportunities.

The power play was about all Florida could count on in the playoffs this year. It went 3 for 9 with the extra man in the first three games, then added another goal in the first period Friday. All-Star left wing Jonathan Huberdeau fed a pass across the goal mouth to winger Mike Hoffman, who ripped home his third goal of the series from inside the right faceoff circle to cut the Islanders’ lead to 2-1 with 1:03 left in the first.

It was all Florida managed Friday, though. The Panthers went 1 for 2 on the power play in the in the first period, but finished just 1 for 5 after putting just one shot on goal across their final three opportunities. New York ultimately outshot Florida, 38-25, and the Panthers managed just 18 shots in 5-on-5 action as the Islanders added three more goals in the second and third periods, including an empty-net goal in the final minutes.

Florida, which averaged 3.35 goals per game in the regular, finished its quick trip to the postseason with just seven goals in four games. The Panthers never outshot New York. Even the power play finished just 4 for 14.

Last offseason, general manager Dale Tallon made major changes through free agency, but couldn’t escape the shadow of his own mistakes and the organization’s longstanding structural issues. Now he faces his own reckoning: The general manager, Sportsnet reported, is on his way out.

“We had to be a lot better,” center Aleksander Barkov said. “We just didn’t do it.”