Pittsburgh Penguins Try to Keep Panthers From Spoiling Their Surprising March to the Playoffs
Sam Navarro-Imagn Images The Florida Panthers bring their bruised and battered team to Pittsburgh for the first of a back-to-back doubleheader against the Penguins with little more than pride on the line and the opportunity to mess things up. Paul Maurice has made it clear his team is trying to play things straight when it comes to team in the playoff race. To beat the Panthers, you’re going to have to earn it .
Take the Penguins. Pittsburgh is a surprising playoff team right now, coming into the Florida doubleheader holding second place in the Metropolitan Division. The Panthers do not want to lay down.
That would not be fair to the teams trying to catch the Penguins. So, despite having an injury list which hovers in the double figures, the Panthers will give the Penguins their best. Pittsburgh has been on the short-end of spoiler matches before.
In 2023, the Panthers backed into the playoffs on the penultimate night of the season when the Penguins were upset at home by the last-place Chicago Blackhawks — a team that had been embarrassed at home the night before. With that loss, Pittsburgh was shockingly mathematically eliminated and the Panthers clinched a postseason spot watching from the comforts of home. At the same 76-game mark of the 2022-23 season they trailed Florida by a single point for the final spot with a game in hand.
The Penguins went into a bit of a tailspin after that. Over the next two seasons, despite having a star-studded lineup, the Penguins spiraled. It cost longtime coach Mike Sullivan his job.
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